L’Oréal announced yesterday to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state and city of Rio de Janeiro to build a Research and Innovation Center on Bom Jesus Island in an area adjacent to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Technology Park.

The project represents an investment of around 30 million euros (70,000,000 reals) that will create 150 direct jobs by 2015. As far as they are concerned, Brazilian officials are working to transform Bom Jesus Island into a Green District with a cluster of high-technology research centres.

The laboratory will serve to accelerate the growth of innovative products tailored for the Brazilian and Latin American markets that may potentially be marketed in other locations around the world,” says L’Oréal in a release.

The L’Oréal group has had operations for 50 years in Brazil, which the third market in the world for cosmetics and toiletries, after the USA and Japan. However, it is only the seventh market for L’Oréal and the group intends to catch up on the giants of direct marketing, Natura, O Boticario or Avon.