Rio

Brazil’s beauty and personal care market is projected to generate a revenue of $28.16 billion in 2025, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 4.86% between now and 2023, according to market research firm Statista.

Within this landscape, Skala has emerged as a category leader in hair treatment creams, while sustainable hair care brand Lola From Rio has built a loyal following with its creative marketing and vegan product formulations.

With backing from private equity firm Advent International, the two brands are strategically aligning their operations to boost scale, expand distribution, and accelerate innovation, while maintaining their individual brand identities and respective clean beauty mindsets.

Domestic and international growth strategy

The strategy behind the merger is to align each brand’s complementary capabilities in both the domestic and international personal care product markets.

“Domestically, the integration with Lola From Rio provides highly complementary sales channels, allowing us to optimize market reach and penetration for both brands,” Rafael Patury, Chairman of the Board of the group, told CosmeticsDesign US.

In the international personal care landscape, he continued, the brands’ plan is to focus on leveraging their respective growth trajectories to “implement [their] extensive experience, infrastructure sharing, and benchmarking initiatives, further accelerat[ing] global expansion and market leadership.”

Infrastructure and logistics optimization

With a new production facility in Uberaba and a US-based distribution center set to come online, Advent is focused on unlocking operational efficiencies at scale.

“We are prioritizing the optimization of our integrated logistics network,” said Patury. As a result of the merger, Skala’s four global distribution centers will be combined with two additional facilities currently utilized by Lola, he confirmed.

Through this larger distribution network, he continued, “we aim to be able to enhance our supply chain efficiency to serve our customers more effectively and support the new group’s substantial scale gains.”

With Skala’s products already distributed in 82 countries and Lola in 40, the integration also opens new opportunities for international growth.

“Leveraging Skala’s established presence in 82 countries… presents a significant opportunity for accelerated global market penetration,” Patury said.

“Our key target markets for expansion include the US, Europe, and Latin America,” he confirmed, “where we will adapt our product offerings and marketing strategies to meet specific regional consumer expectations.”

Balancing innovation with brand autonomy

The combined company plans to pursue innovation through collaboration while maintaining brand distinctiveness.

“While commercial and marketing operations for both brands will maintain a degree of strategic autonomy to preserve their distinct market positioning, we anticipate significant cross-functional knowledge transfer and collaborative experience sharing,” Patury explained.

“This approach will foster synergistic innovation opportunities within our product development pipeline,” he added, “allowing each brand to boost its productivity and market responsiveness while leveraging collective insights.”

Preserving each brand’s creative DNA

Known for its irreverent tone and bold formulations, Lola From Rio will continue to operate with creative independence under the new structure.

“Lola’s unique voice and agility will be preserved through operational independence, particularly within our commercial and marketing functions,” said Patury.

“The existing leadership team that has driven Lola’s success will continue to lead the brand within the combined group, and Lola’s founders will remain involved and significant shareholders,” he explained, adding that “this commitment to continuity ensures the brand’s core essence and creative spirit remain intact.”

Sustainability is a central element of the group’s innovation and branding strategy, as both brands are recognized for their ethical ethos.

“Lola’s leadership in conscious beauty will significantly influence the new group’s shared innovation and brand strategies by fostering a unified commitment to sustainable practices and ethical sourcing,” Patury said.

“Both Lola and Skala share a fundamental commitment to vegan and cruelty-free principles,” he concluded, “along with a focus on leveraging Brazilian heritage in product development to deliver high-quality solutions.”

Following the merger, Luis Delfim, current President of Skala, will serve as CEO of the new group, and Pedro Taguchi, COO of Lola From Rio, will continue to lead the Lola brand, Advent International‘s press release confirmed.