Our story
Our story begins in 1951 when a thirteen-year-old Ottavio Buffagnotti set out one day with a bicycle and a cart to sell the first Orchidea product: “Bucato saponina” powder, giving away a wooden clothespin with every purchase.
During the years of economic boom, the household cleaning sector also experienced a significant development. Orchidea established itself as a leader in the distribution of bleach and hand soap, becoming second only to Johnson & Johnson. Starting from the simple sale of bags of soda lye, the company progressively expanded its product range, reaching an ever-growing variety.
But Ottavio’s curiosity did not stop here. He traveled to the United States to attend the first trade and distribution seminar of the 1950s: The era of supermarkets was coming. After receiving recognition for his work in Italy, he returned with the awareness that his intuition had been correct and with a renewed enthusiasm for experimenting with new things.
And so, upon returning to Italy, he founded the well-equipped chemical laboratory that still represents our heritage today. Driven by the same passion for creating new products, we leverage advanced technologies, face competition, and optimize customer service. Thanks to the collaboration of experts, we always aim for the best quality-price ratio, just as we did back then.
For 70 years, Orchidea has been offering a complete line of household cleaning products on both the national and international markets, and also provides a wide range of personal hygiene products.
Our commercial policy is to position ourselves as the second brand, offering an alternative for every market-leading product. We stand out for our commitment to continuous quality research and environmental respect, both in our products and packaging.
We aim to use increasingly clean energy, and for this reason, we have installed a 165 kW photovoltaic panel system.
