Natura &Co’s Revenue Doubled in Just One Year

Antonio Luiz Seabra was an unlikely beauty expert. He began his career with a degree in Economics and sold typewriters for a living. In the 1960s, he discovered his passion for cosmetics as he managed a family laboratory in Sao Paulo. By 1969, he founded Natura Cosméticos with a little shop. Fifty-three years later, that small shop has turned into Brazil’s biggest beauty brand and the 4th largest “pure-play” beauty company in the world.

The beauty giant also leads the way in sustainability practices, making “positive economic, social, and environmental impact” parts of its core mission. At Latinometrics, we’ve read through more than a few annual reports. We have to admit that Natura &Co’s was the most uplifting we’ve seen, with many inspirational quotes like “we are living proof that together we are greater than the sum of our parts.” Financial performance stuff aside, the company reported key wins in its humanity department:

Women occupy 50.4% of its leadership positions

2M hectares of Amazon forest conserved

$59M invested in social and environmental causes

In 2012, the company made its first major acquisition, buying a stake in Aesop for $72M. Since then, its purchases have gotten much bigger. Its most recent one, Australian beauty brand Avon, was reportedly worth $2B. Since Natura &Co began trading publicly in 2004, its revenues have gone from $0.6B to $7.45B, a more than 12x growth (still, the stock has been struggling in the past year).

It’s encouraging to see a business committed to a better world growing in size. It all began with Seabra’s vision of using nature’s ingredients and a passion for giving customers beauty advice, considering beauty a form of self-respect. His philosophy “that we can nurture beauty and relationships for a better way of living and doing business” now operates in 73 countries and employs 35K+ people.