When listing the difficulties he encountered in implementing his businesses in Brazil, Austrian billionaire Reinold Geiger, 76, global chairman of the L'Occitane Group and creator of its national version, L'Occitane au Brésil, cites bureaucracy and taxes, but also an unusual cultural barrier.
"People in Brazil undergo a lot of plastic surgery," he assesses. "They start at 30. Then, at 40, they have to have a second surgery. At 50, a third. And, in fact, they are destroying their faces," he asserts.
Under his leadership, the company has become a global giant in natural cosmetics, a market that has grown in the wake of the trend towards products free from chemicals like petroleum and parabens. The so-called "clean beauty" is expected to generate R$120 billion worldwide in 2024, according to the British Beauty Council.