Castelbel

Castelbel is a medium-sized company headquartered in the Greater Porto area, near the valley of the Douro river in Northern Portugal, where the hills fall steeply down to the water's edge and the land is covered with sun-drenched terraces of vines and olive groves. The company manufactures and sells fine toiletry soaps and other luxury fragranced p... roducts for the home and body. The name Castelbel derived from the combination of the name of the small town where the company has always been located ("Castêlo da Maia") and the portuguese word for beauty ("beleza"). The company started their activity at the end of 1999 to manufacture high-quality artisanal soaps to the US market only. By placing a strong bet on both tradition and innovation, Castelbel grew in a sustained way, as both sales and staff numbers show. Starting from 9 in 1999, the number of workers increased to 15 in 2003, to 37 in 2006, to 56 in 2012, to over 150 nowadays. Relying on a team of experienced chemists, chemical engineers and designers, the company became technically and creatively sound, something that allowed them to grow in terms of product assortment and global market share. In 2005, while already being world-renowned for the excellence of their soaps, the company filed for the trademarks Castelbel and Portus Cale (the latter being the original name of Portugal and the old name of an ancient town and port that gave origin to todays' Greater Porto Area). Nowadays the two trademarks identify a series of products besides soaps: fragranced candles, drawer liners and sachets; fragrance diffusers and room sprays; fragranced hand creams, shower gels and body lotions. Selling mostly to external markets since the foundation of the company, Castelbel currently exports circa 80% of their annual turnover. Besides the U.S.A., the main markets for both Castelbel and Portus Cale are now the UK, Spain, Germany, and Australia. The financial and social performance of Castelbel has been recently recognized by several official entities, who have awarded ...Read More