THE KING'S BLOG

If you have oily skin, check out our XCD 'Perfecter' product - available online from shave.com. Click here to see an independent review.

A razor with a headlight. Only from America... Kick me if I ever get to this stage of product 'evolution' with King of Shaves. Incredible.

I have to say, the latest TV & Print advertising from Wilkinson Sword in the UK is probably the worst I have ever seen. And I'm not alone - click here to read why, and as one of my colleagues said, they manage to feature all four of the Village People in one man!

C'mon. WS used to be a Great British brand. You can almost feel it self destructing on a stroke by stroke basis. Gillette must be quaking in their boots, Not.

Luckily no such problem with Stubble... Thanks Chris ;-)

Listen here

I'm sure we've all seen White Van Man's white Ford transit, with 'Clean Me' writ large on the rear.

Well, today, I was stuck in a traffic jam between Marlow and High Wycombe, and snapped the picture below. It's a sad and telling reflection on our fantastic NHS that some wag has summarised what Joe Public think of the state of cleanliness in our fantastic National Health Service.

As Gerry Robinson found out, cleaning up the NHS' many and varied problems is a dirty job, but surely somebody has to do it?

I've been following the progress of WindJet for a few months...thought people might like to see this short video...for more info, check out http://www.windjet.co.uk

This article and this article are worth a read - especially as Procter & Gamble are in a superb position to be leading the 'war on unnecessary secondary'. Not only does Fusion have more blades than you can shake a stick at (6) it also has more packaging. I'm glad they have been brought to book.

I'm a bit at a loss to understand why the US government hasn't summoned all the Presidents and CEO's of its banks (those who lent to people they knew to be risky) to A) fine them (a profit sweep perhaps) and B) to tell the banks to start lending to each other again. If they tell Goldman Sachs to lend to Citi, then Citi will lend to Wachovia...

...and HSBC will keep lending to Barclays, who'll lend to UBS...you get the gist. I'm also at a loss to understand why the UK government hasn't done the same - why doesn't Alastair Darling threaten to withdraw their banking licenses (ouch), tell them to be more careful who they lend to (no one lends to people who can't pay) and finally, to put an independent adjudicating panel in place to monitor these banking 'Masters of the Universe'.

Makes sense to me - in the same way that shaving with a cartridge that costs £2.50 doesn't make sense! What do YOU think? After all, it affects us all.

http://www.howies.co.uk/content.php?xId=492&xPg=2

I have never worked so hard. Since setting up KMI in 1993, I've worked hard - but this year - well, it's been a long one! However, we've achieved a huge amount, launching new brands like Angel Fish & KOS PRO, preparing the foundations to launch Patently Obvious and Hed Kandi and building the sales of King of Shaves, Ted Baker and Fish of course. Sales are up, profits are up, satisfaction is healthy (but not complacent!!!)

We're outgrowing the offices we're in, and the team are looking at new places for us to live - the USA has delivered its best ever performance - we nearly made money this year, and on the back of strong growth, are expanding our range, and infrastructure to be able to cope with 2008.

The team here are 'simply the best' - they all work really hard, but seem to enjoy it too - so that's great news - so thanks to them. Thanks also go out to our retail partners, especially Boots, Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison who've been great to trade with this year. We also enjoy a great relationship with key suppliers, many of whom are based in the UK (make local - sell local) so thanks to them, especially Mike Peters and the team at UPL.

So, 2007 draws to a close, who knows what 2008 will bring? All I know is the future of shaving is getting closer ;-)