Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone who reads my blog (and that's about 2,000 of you, so thanks for taking the time to read what I have to write about). It's chilly out there, and going to get chillier as we move into 2009, but remember, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's in these challenging, trubbled times that the tough get going and thrive, rather than survive, and that's going to be our watchword for 2009.
It's over six months now since the Azor launched, and we've sold an astonishing 250,000 handles (and sampled approximately 50,000 more via the Azor BattleBus) so we now have 300,000 handles out there, that have delivered tens of millions of quality shaves.
The Azor is now stocked in all the UK's major retailers with the exception of Asda, whom we hope will come on-line during 2009, and our first limited edition (the Rari) and banded Azors with Gels (in Boots & Superdrug) are also selling really well.
In early Spring, we'll be debuting the Azure, the Azor for women, in fantastic gold & black, this promises to deliver the 'Queen of Shaves' without the ransom, and our very own Diane Wood, celebrity barber to the stars, will be helping us with our UK launch plans. The Azure will be priced at exactly the same level as the men's, no overcharging women for a simply great shave!
And on this note, we will hopefully beat to market Gillette's new 5 bladed razor for women, Venus Embrace (how many blades does a woman need, and at what price?) and other NPD reputedly coming from Wilkinson Sword.
We've also sparked Bic into action, who are relaunching their dire Bic Clic Soleil (old stacked blade technology, over-packaged and over done) too - see a link to an article on how they're copying our 'Ecoptimal' approach here.
Looking forwards, we're on promotion with the Azor at Superdrug until 20th January (Superdrug have really supported our launch well, so many thanks to them) and will be introducing our next Limited Edition Azor shortly - more details soon.
King of Shaves shaving software continues to grow really strongly, even though IRI (who monitor retail sales) have managed to miss out half a dozen products, so we're expecting even stronger sales results on software as this year unfolds. We'll also be introducing a limited edition 'Fish' branded Azor later this year, with more brand partnerships to follow.
So, all in all - it's going to be a real busy year, we're keeping focussed on delivering the world's best shave, day in - day out, and if you are yet to try any of our products, why not give them a spin.
Join us. We are King of Shaves!
