The 'King of Shaves' in Town for a Short, Sharp Visit

Will King, the dynamic entrepreneur behind UK shaving brand King of Shaves slipped into Auckland today for an exclusive media event - here to promote the new King of Shaves Azor razor as well as to extend his personal crusade to bring the global cost of shaving down.

“Men pay too much for shaving and I’m here to tell them there is a better way,” says Will. “I’m looking forward to meeting the men of New Zealand and enlightening them into the King of Shaves way,” he said.

Will King’s idea to start the King of Shaves came from his dissatisfaction with men’s shaving products; in price, effectiveness and his own long-running battle with razor-burn. He wanted to manufacture shaving products for sensitive skin, with accompanying razors that created a close shave and to sell them at prices that wouldn’t cost the earth.

First steps achieved mixed results. His first product was shaving oil inspired by his girlfriend’s body oil – which with a borrowed £20,000, he filled 10,000 bottles by hand at home and before setting out on the road to sell them himself. Initial sales were disastrous, until famous department store Harrods and pharmacy chain Boots saw the potential and stocked the oil.

“It sat on a Boots shelf with a sad little homemade label stuck on the front of the bottle,” says Will. “But it worked and because it looked amateurish people thought they would give it a try. I would get phone calls and letters saying how it had transformed someone’s life,” he said.

Fast forward to 2008 when he decided to take on the big names of the shaving market launching the King of Shaves Azor Razor – based on quality, simplicity and affordability. This approach has put him head to head with the giants of the shaving business.

“Gillette is such a powerful brand, it chooses to charge what it likes for its products, and it’s been able to do that because it’s not had any substantive competition - we set out to disrupt their monopoly,” Will says.

Will’s belief was vindicated when his company’s sales defied the recent global financial crisis with constant double digit growth - "Beards don't grow more slowly in a bust!" and as a result, the King of Shaves brand is now stocked in approximately 30,000 stores worldwide, including the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South America, with an annual wholesale turnover of over £25 million. In the UK alone over 1.5 million Azor blades have been sold since their launch in 2008 with replenishment cartridge sales averaging 40,000+ per week.

With this success has come the accolades; in 2009 King of Shaves was awarded “Overall fast growth company of the year” by T-Mobile/Growing Business Magazine, and Will King was a winner in the London & South East Region finals of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

He was also shortlisted also as 'Digital Marketer of the Year' in the Revolution Awards 2010 for his innovative marketing approach. “You only have to observe how a brand is discussed on Twitter to see how quickly its fate can be decided,” Will says. “If someone tweets that a product is rubbish out there in the blogosphere, that can be the end of it.”

But Will King’s mission isn’t over yet with his main shaving competitor still dominating the market with 80% global market share. “We’ve made a great start and I know that we’ve made our competition take notice, but there are many more men to educate and many more markets to visit,” he said.

For more information on the King of Shaves visit: www.kingofshaves.co.nz