Gillette brings twin edge in Indian flat age  ( October '30,2003, ET)

The US-Based Gillette company today staged the ‘world premier’ of Vector Plus twin-blade system — touted to be the largest product investment by the Boston-based company for India.

Gillette's Global Product Research Centre, Boston, took three years to engineer Vector Plus — priced Rs 49 — which is aimed at converting the conventional flat-blade users to the twin blade system.

The genesis of the product lies in extensive research in India which showed that the market remained predominantly double-edge with 97% of total shaving units and 90% of the users continue to use flat blades.

Indians have tough beard growth and infrequent shaving habits. This coupled with limited access to running water causes clogging of hair in the twin system. Consequently, even though twins provided superior quality of shave, hair clogging proved to be a major deterrent. Almost, two in three shavers who try twins go back to double-edge due to clogging problem in the twin system. Twin blades constitute only 26% of the Rs 6,000-crore blades and razors market in India annually. The penetration of twin blades among infrequent shavers (below three shaves a week) is only 7%.

According to Gillette India managing director, Zubair Ahmed, this is the largest initiative taken by the Gillette Company for the Indian market. Vector Plus’s push clean button addresses the problem of

hair clog.

Mr Ahmed said that more than price, it is habit which is keeping the masses away from twin blades. Indians shaved only 1.7 times a week. He expects the new product to be the key driver for Gillette in upgrading double-edge users to twins category which has been virtually stagnant for the last two years.

Early this year, Gillette repositioned the 7’O Clock blade at the top-end of the double edge market. The company pulled the brand out from its closet after a gap of seven years. The idea was to capture both value and volume of the 97% of the Indian market - the world’s largest in unit terms. As of now Gillette owns only 10% of the popular segment. The blade market is dominated by the House of Malhotras with brands such as Topaz and Supermax followed by Gillette’s 7’O Clock and Wilkinson.

Gillette posted a net profit of Rs 6.46 crore in 2002 against a net loss of Rs 27.79 crore in 2001. The company’s turnover dipped from Rs 452 crore in 2001 to Rs 383 crore in 2002.