Granado

Granado is a Brazilian pharmacy, cosmetics and perfumery company founded in 1870 in Rio de Janeiro by the Portuguese immigrant José Antonio Coxito Granado [2]. Described on its own site as Brazil's oldest pharmacy, the company began as an apothecary mixing remedies and cosmetics from plants, herbs and native flowers, and has since grown into a fragrance and body-care house with concept stores in Brazil and a small international footprint across Europe and, more recently, the United States. The business remains active: its most recent visible expansion was the opening of its first U.S. store in New York City in 2024 [5].

Ownership today is split between the English entrepreneur Christopher Freeman, who bought the company in 1994, and the Spanish beauty group Puig, which took a minority stake in 2016. Granado's identity rests heavily on its 19th-century apothecary heritage, which it carries through into its retail design, its packaging and a positioning the company calls a "carioca" — that is, Rio-native — style of perfumery.

The Portuguese José Antonio Coxito Granado opened his apothecary in Rio de Janeiro in 1870, producing remedies and cosmetics from plants, herbs and native flowers he cultivated on a small farm in the mountainous Teresópolis region near the city. According to the company, Granado also compiled the first official register of Brazilian medicinal plants and herbs, and it built its early reputation by importing European pharmaceutical products and adapting their formulas to Brazilian needs.

Brand sources record the original business under the name Botica de Barros Franco, which developed into the present-day enterprise; it was later known as Pharmacia Granado. The founder also published an annual pharmaceutical almanac, Pharol da Medicina, between 1887 and 1940, addressed to doctors, pharmacists and the general public.

Granado's own account attributes the founding to José Antonio Coxito Granado alone [2]. The company's U.S. sister-site adds that his brother, João Bernardo Granado, created one of the firm's signature products — the Antiseptic Powder — in 1903, some three decades after the founding [3]; the brother is credited with that product rather than with establishing the company.

In 1880, Emperor Dom Pedro II granted Granado the title "Official Pharmacy of the Brazilian Imperial Family," a distinction the company still cites as central to its history. During the Republican period that followed, brand sources say it kept this standing and drew well-known patrons, among them the jurist Rui Barbosa and the abolitionist José do Patrocínio.

Two products anchor the early portfolio. In 1903 the Antiseptic Powder (Polvilho Antisséptico), a foot treatment, was created and — by the company's account — approved by the physician and bacteriologist Oswaldo Cruz; Granado states the formula "remains unchanged and highly efficient even today" [3]. In 1916 it launched 100% vegetable-based glycerine soaps, which the company says were the first of their kind made in Brazil. The first Granado store opened in 1917 in central Rio, opposite the Imperial Palace, where the company says it still operates.

A modernisation phase began under new ownership in the 1990s. In 1995 Granado created an internal archive cataloguing its products and materials since the founding, and in 2004 it incorporated Phebo, a Brazilian perfumery launched in the 1930s in Belém, in the Amazonian state of Pará. From 2005 the company rolled out its Concept Store Project, reopening a renovated flagship at the original pharmacy address with a deliberately 19th-century pharmacy atmosphere — exposed brick, warm lighting, and displays of original mortars, scales and advertisements. Granado describes these locations as concept "museum" stores and reserves certain lines for them, including the Vintage range of re-edited historical formulas and in-store dermo-cosmetic consultations.

International expansion followed from 2013, when Granado entered the European market through the Paris department store Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche and set up a French subsidiary. It opened its first Paris flagship in Saint-Germain and its first Lisbon location around 2017, added further Paris stores in 2019, and reached London in 2023 with a launch in the Liberty beauty hall. In 2020 the company marked its 150th anniversary with a retrospective exhibition and became a sponsor of Instituto Arara Azul, a Brazilian conservation project.

Granado remained within the founding family for three generations before changing hands. In 1994 the English entrepreneur Christopher Freeman acquired the company from its last remaining family member; brand and Wikipedia sources put the price at US$8 million, and the Portuguese-language Wikipedia entry notes that the founder's will had stipulated foreign ownership to enable global expansion [5]. Granado describes Freeman as leading it through a parallel process of modernisation and reconnection with its traditions.

In 2016, the Spanish beauty and fashion group Puig invested in the company. Sources differ on the precision of the stake: Granado's own site states only that Puig obtained a minority share, while the Portuguese Wikipedia entry records a 35% stake purchased for R$500 million, leaving Freeman with 65% [2][5]. The more detailed split is therefore drawn from Wikipedia, with the brand site corroborating the direction but not the figures.

Granado frames itself as a guardian of Brazilian apothecary heritage, applying 19th-century pharmacy tradition and plant-based formulas to modern fragrance and body care. The company describes perfumery as "an art of living" and emphasises bold, tropical creations in a "carioca" style rooted in Rio de Janeiro. It also speaks of an ongoing effort to "distill new life into these traditional brands, maintaining their historical DNA while at the same time making them relevant in today's world."

Editorially, the brand is positioned as a Brazilian counterpoint to the more familiar French-pharmacy classics. In its 2023 Liberty London feature, the retailer described Brazil as "fast becoming the new beauty capital of the world" and called Granado "its most underrated export" [7]; Liberty's beauty buyer described the launch as the brand's "first and only home" in the United Kingdom. The Perfume Society similarly characterises the house as one that "bridges the classic and the modern" through fragrances honouring Brazilian culture and ingredients [6].

Granado's range spans fragrance, body and bath products, and home scents such as diffusers and candles. The vegetable-based glycerine soaps of the Vintage line — re-editions of historical formulas, hand-wrapped in recycled-paper packaging drawn from the company's archive illustrations — are frequently singled out in retail editorial, alongside the long-running Antiseptic Powder, which the company describes as "one of the brand's most iconic and traditional products" [2].

In fragrance, the perfume Carioca, an eau de toilette with bergamot, lime and floral and musk notes, is identified by the trade press as the brand's hero scent [8]. Other named fragrances include Bossa, Boema — evoking the bohemian Lapa district of early-20th-century Rio — and Époque Tropical, which the Perfume Society describes as combining Brazilian flowers with classic French perfumery. The fragrances are sold at a prestige price point and stocked internationally at retailers including Le Bon Marché, Liberty London, Harvey Nichols and Isetan in Tokyo.

On sustainability, the company says its products are not tested on animals and have been certified cruelty-free since 2006 by the Brazilian organisation PEA (Project Animal Hope) [2]. It also points to FSC-labelled packaging and Vintage-line labels made from recycled paper, and describes itself as a pioneer of 100% vegetable-based soaps in Brazil. Manufacturing is based in Brazil, with facilities in Rio de Janeiro and Belém acquired with Phebo, and a 30,000-square-metre industrial complex opened at Japeri in 2015.

Granado's recognition is rooted in its royal appointment and its enduring product reputation rather than in formal awards. The 1880 imperial title remains the centrepiece of its heritage narrative, and the Antiseptic Powder — endorsed in 1903 by Oswaldo Cruz, by the company's account — is presented as proof of formulas that have lasted more than a century. More recent press coverage has accompanied the brand's European and UK expansion, including features in Liberty London's beauty editorial, Woman&Home and The Perfume Society, the last quoting marketing director Sissi Freeman on the UK launch.

Granado is an active company with continuing growth. Its store network is reported differently across sources: the brand site, whose history page is somewhat out of date, refers to roughly 60 concept "museum" stores spread across Brazil, while the Portuguese Wikipedia entry records 95 stores in total as of 2022 (91 in Brazil, three in France and one in Portugal), with the company's U.S. material citing more than 100 concept stores worldwide [2][5]. The most recent milestones documented in the sources are the 2023 London launch and the opening of a first U.S. store in New York in 2024. Wikipedia also reports 2022 revenue of R$676 million, and the minority Puig shareholding is generally read as a signal of continued investment in the business.