The luxury brand Ach. Brito has its foundations in the soap and perfume company set up in the northern Portuguese city of Porto in 1918 by Achilles de Brito and his brother Affonso. In 1927 Achilles de Brito acquired Claus & Schweder, the company (est. 1887) where he had previously been a partner, which subsequently changed its name to Claus Porto. The two brand names have since worked in tandem, and both make use of Fedrigoni papers for their internationally successful products. Some of the products and marques launched in the firms’ early years are still on the market today, such as Luxo-Banho (1927), Patti (1929), Triple Alfazema (1932) and Musgo (1939) among many others. Claus Porto has flagship stores in Porto, Lisbon, Manhattan and Shinjuku City, Tokyo.
Ach. Brito’s labels were originally painted by hand, making use of local artists and designers. This distinctive approach to packaging led to the company setting up its own lithography studio in 1953, where it produced artwork for outside clients – including port companies and the national tobacco company – in addition to its own products. The manufacture of soaps is still done according to traditional methods, acknowledging techniques handed down from generation to generation.
The new Flores [Flowers] Collection draws on the brand’s rich heritage of decorative patterning and uses a wide range of Fedrigoni papers and cards. For example the eco-friendly soap boxes for Lavanda e Jasmim [Lavender and Jasmin], the exotic Monoi da Polinésia [Monoi Flower] and Rosa Moderna [Modern Rose] use Fedrigoni Arena White Rough 300g/m2, while the individual soaps are wrapped in Fedrigoni Arena White Rough 90 g/m2 paper.