King of Shaves, Azor Featured In The Times, Saturday 17th January
On Wednesday I was privileged to be interviewed by Martin Waller, Deputy City Editor for the UK's prestigious newspaper, The Times - click here if you'd like to read what I had to say, (it's out in printed form tomorrow), here's an extract:
While launching Azor, Mr King came across 20,000 patents protecting variants
on the simple razor. “The reason there are 20,000 patents out there is
because the business of shaving men's hair is extraordinarily profitable. I
estimate Gillette's gross margins at 94 per cent. It's effectively a global
monopoly.” He admits that one of the most common questions he is asked is
when he will sell out to the market leader, owned by Procter & Gamble,
the consumer products combine.
You wonder whether he is obsessed with his huge rival. “I talk about them in
the same way that perhaps Steve Jobs [founder of Apple], in a much bigger
way, would talk about Microsoft. It seems to me that with the existence of a
monopoly even in a simple market like shaving, there's the opportunity to
disrupt it.”
(Source The Times, Saturday 17.1.09)
