Gillette is a brand of Procter & Gamble currently used for safety razors, among other personal care products. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, it is one of several brands originally owned by The Gillette Company, a leading global supplier of products under various brands, which was acquired by P&G in 2005. Their slogan is "The Best a Man Can Get". The original Gillette Company was founded by King Camp Gillette in 1895 as a safety razor manufacturer.
On October 1, 2005, Procter & Gamble finalized its purchase of The Gillette Company. As a result of this merger, the Gillette Company no longer exists. Its last day of market trading—symbol G on the New York Stock Exchange—was September 30, 2005. The merger created the world's largest personal care and household products company. In addition to Gillette, the company marketed under Braun, Duracell and Oral-B, among others, which have also been maintained by P&G.
The Gillette Company's assets were initially incorporated into a P&G unit known internally as "Global Gillette". In July 2007, Global Gillette was dissolved and incorporated into Procter & Gamble's other two main divisions, Procter & Gamble Beauty and Procter & Gamble Household Care. Gillette's brands and products were divided between the two accordingly.

Gillette India Limited is an India-based company. The Company operates in three segments: Grooming, which includes blades, razors and toiletries; Portable Power, which include batteries, and Oral Care, which includes tooth brushes and oral care products. The Company’s products include shaving system and cartridges, safety razor blades, tooth brushes, batteries, toiletries, oral care products and shaving brushes. The personal care category of the male grooming business includes pre-shave/post-shave products and deodorants. The Company’s brands include GILLETTE MACH 3 TURBO, ORAL-B and DURACELL. As of June 30, 2010, it had two manufacturing plants in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, India. As of June 30, 2010, it had an installed capacity of 686 million twin type shaving system and cartridges, and 1340 million safety razor blades. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, it had a production of 230 million twin type shaving system and cartridges, and 951 million safety razor blades.

Gillette returned to acquisition mode in 1995 and 1996. In late 1995 Oral-B's position in Latin America was bolstered with the purchase of the Pro oral care line. Near the end of the year Gillette acquired Thermoscan Inc., a leader in infrared ear thermometers. Thermoscan promised to provide a base for Gillette to expand into the rapidly growing personal home diagnostic products area. Then in late 1996 the company made its largest acquisition ever when it paid $7.1 billion for Duracell International Inc., the world leader in alkaline batteries. Gillette thus added its first major product line since the purchase of Oral-B; in fact, batteries immediately became the company's second-leading product line in terms of sales, trailing only razors and blades. Duracell batteries had been underdistributed outside the United States, so Gillette planned to achieve sales growth by leveraging its existing marketing channels, which reached more than 200 countries by the mid-1990s. More immediately, the Duracell merger led Gillette to record a fourth quarter 1996 charge to operating expenses of $413 million to eliminate overlap between Gillette and Duracell operations.
In 1996 the company also launched more than 20 new products, including SensorExcel for Women. That year, a whopping 41 percent of Gillette sales came from products that debuted during the previous five years, a testament to the company's new product development strength. And an improvement on the SensorExcel was already in the works. Sales neared the $10 billion mark, as 1996 revenues were $9.7 billion, and net income--despite the Duracell charge--was a healthy $949 million.
Razor Wars: Late 1990s and Beyond
Gillette introduced a significant innovation in shaving technology--the first major innovation in safety razors since the beginning of the 1970s--with the Mach 3 in 1998. The new safety razor system introduced a third blade into the twin-blade system that had dominated the wet-shaving market for the previous quarter-century. The blades were set at an angle so that each blade shaves closer to the skin, allowing shavers to use fewer strokes to get the same close, comfortable shave. The shaving cartridge was set on a pivot, allowing the head of the razor to move with the angle of the jaw and skin. In addition, the cartridge itself was designed to facilitate cleaning, and the handle was ergonomically designed to make the razor more comfortable in the hand.
The entire Mach 3 system, protected by 35 patents, cost Gillette $35 billion just to bring to market. As a result, the corporation set the price for replacement cartridges about 35 percent more than its previous best-selling razor, the SensorExcel. Marketing strategy was slanted to persuade current Gillette product users to trade up their previous equipment in favor of the newer, more expensive models because of their improved performance, offering a closer shave with fewer nicks and cuts.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the expense of the expense of introducing the new razor, Gillette saw its worst economic performance in almost a decade in 1998. Sales during the third quarter of the year alone dropped 15 percent. In October, Gillette management announced staff cuts of 4,700 jobs, about 11 percent of its total workforce. Lowered sales in key markets such as Brazil, Germany, and Russia also contributed to the loss of income, and share prices dropped by 11 percent virtually overnight.
Gillette's underperformance continued in 1999 and 2000, in large part because of currency-exchange differences. Its stationery and small-appliance businesses showed the greatest losses and the battery and toiletries businesses provided most of the profits. In October 2000 Gillette's managing board responded by firing CEO Michael Hawley and announcing a world-wide restructuring effort that would be led by former Nabisco CEO James M. Kilts, who joined the firm during its centennial year, in January 2001. Kilts, who had earned a reputation as a fixer of troubled companies, needed all his skills. Gillette's battery business, which had dominated the top of the market, lost market share to other brands (Energizer and Rayovac) that offered similar performance at a lower cost. In addition the company lacked fiscal discipline and used an antiquated quarterly tracking system. As a result of these and other expensive practices, Gillette's earnings continued to perform below expectations. Stock prices fell by about 60 percent in the months between early 1999 and late 2001.
Gillette's control of the toiletries market was threatened early in 2003 when rival Schick-Wilkinson Sword introduced the Quattro, the world's first four-blade shaving system. Gillette claimed that the Quattro illegally infringed on Gillette's patents for the Mach 3. The violence of the company's reaction was explained in part because the Quattro actually increased Schick's market share from about 14 percent to about 17 percent. At the same time Gillette's market share slipped by a similar amount--although the Boston-based firm still held a commanding 63 percent of the total wet-razor market. Although Gillette lost its attempt to ban sales of the Quattro in court, it nonetheless saw sales of its products increase. By the end of the first quarter of 2004, Gillette was able to report a 43 percent increase in profits, much of which was provided by its mens' and womens' wet razors, the Mach 3 and Venus systems. The company's grasp of its core businesses--toiletries and oral care--remained strong.
Principal Operating Units: Blades & Razors; Duracell; Oral Care; Braun; Personal Care.
Principal Competitors: Colgate-Palmolive Company; The Proctor & Gamble Company; Societe BIC; American Safety Razor Company.


OVERALL
Beta: 0.64
Market Cap (Mil.): Rs59,487.57
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 32.59
Annual Dividend: 15.00
Yield (%): 0.82
FINANCIALS
GILE.NS Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 58.26 32.32 20.31
EPS (TTM): -34.78 -- --
ROI: -- 39.53 7.90
ROE: -- 60.46 12.82


Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1901 as American Safety Razor Company
Employees: 29,400
Sales: $9.25 billion (2004)
Stock Exchanges: New York London Frankfurt Zurich
Ticker Symbol: G
NAIC: 325620 Toilet Preparation Manufacturing


Key Dates:
1901: American Safety Razor is founded by King C. Gillette.
1904: King Gillette's safety razor is patented.
1918: Gillette manufacturers razors and blades for soldiers during World War I.
1942: The Cavalcade of Sports program is formed to oversee the company's various advertising and promotional activities in athletics.
1967: Braun AG is acquired.
1971: Company is organized into four domestic divisions: the Safety Razor Division; the Toiletries Division (featuring Right Guard antiperspirant); the Personal Care Division; and the Paper Mate division.
1991: Gillette ranks 20th among the Fortune 500.
1996: The company acquires battery manufacturer Duracell.

Name Age Since Current Position
Poddar, S. Non-Executive Chairman of the Board
Acharya, Deepak 2007 Compliance Officer, Company Secretary
Khosla, Shantanu 2007 Managing Director, Executive Director
Bansal, Subhash 2007 Whole-Time Director
Poddar, Akshay 2000 Non-Executive Director
Henretta, Deborah 2005 Non-Executive Director
Das, Gurcharan 66 2007 Independent Director
Sagar, Jyoti 2008 Independent Director
Gupta, Anil 64 2009 Independent Director
Dua, C. 59 2002 Non-Executive Independent Director
Mehta, Bansidhar 75 2005 Non-Executive Independent Director

Address:
Prudential Tower Building, Suite 4800
Boston, Massachusetts 02199
U.S.A.
 
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