THE KING'S BLOG

(from Reuters - link to subsequent article here

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - King of Shaves, a British shaving products firm, has invited customers to invest in a 5 million pounds ($8.21 million) bond, showing companies are capitalising on a surge in retail investor demand for such fixed income assets.

Institutional investors have already gobbled up some 200 billion euros ($280.4 billion) of corporate bonds issued in the first half of the year and now retail investors have worked up an appetite too.

King of Shaves' bond is tiny, but a string of big European companies, including oil company BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), car maker Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), Italian oil company ENI (ENI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) and France's EDF (EDF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) have issued several billions of euros in bonds, partly aimed at small investors and more issues of this kind are expected.

Following our great reception to King of Shaves Azor at NACDS Marketplace in Boston, USA where we were voted one of the most 'innovative' brands at the show in Boston (and Di Wood was voted a great hit, shaving over 50 buyers & industry professionals), I've flown via NYC & Miami to Sao Paulo, the industrial powerhouse of Brazil, where we debut the Azor to the Brazilian press and buyers tomorrow, courtesy our partner, Aeger, part of Brightstar - a US$200m beauty, toiletries & fragrance brand owner & distribution company headed by CEO Marcos Rothenberg and his MD Marisa Fabbri.

We're launching at the aptly named 'Unique Hotel' in Sao Paulo, where we'll be explaining how the Azor is revolutionising shaving in the UK, and explaining in greater depth our expansion plans for the brand in Brazil, one of the world's fastest growing economies - one that puts beauty & grooming at the forefront, and is open and welcoming to innovation and 'the future.

I'll be posting later tomorrow on the day's events, and what the Brightstar/Aeger team have planned for King of Shaves in this fast developing, exciting nation!

I have just returned from Sao Paulo, where on Monday we launched King of Shaves Azor into the booming Brazilian market. Brazil, largely untouched by the global economic recession, has one of the world's fastest growing economies and a population of approximately 160m, with beauty and style always at the forefront.

Our press launch was held at the impressive 'Unique Hotel' in Sao Paulo, courtesy of Aeger Perfumes e Cosmeticas, one of Brazil's pre-eminent toiletries & fragrance companies. The event was well attended by members of the Brazilian beauty & business press, and on the morning of the event, a large article on our launch appeared in the "Economico Valor' section of top-selling Brazilian newspaper Segundo-feira.

I carried out half a dozen interviews, explaining why I believe Brazilians will enjoy beard removal with our award winning Azor, and our intention to capture 5% of the 'system razor' market within two years. With Gillette being our primary competitor, and yet to introduce Fusion (too expensive...), we are up against redesigns of their Mach3 product, launched 11 years ago in 1998. With our Azor using newer technology, launched just last year in the UK and with sales of our system razor handle now approximately 10%, I believe we have a great opportunity to deliver the 'King of Shaves' to tens of thousands of Brazilian men.

Our brand awareness in Brazil is very high too, courtesy of our top-playing internet games, King of Defenders, King of Power & King of Air Guitar. Brazil is the top-playing nation of King of Defenders, with 4.45m (million!!!) plays, indeed - in the last 30 days, it racked up over 233,000 individual game plays. King of Power, with 597,000 Brazilian plays since launch achieved 16,000 just last week, and King of Air Guitar with 690,000 plays since launch, and 28,000 Brazilians playing it in the last 30 days!

The King of Shaves Azor sold out of its launch drugstore chain, Drog Iguatemi in a matter of hours, and with plenty of publicity planned, including 'Shave Princesses', a mobile shaving van (like our Azor bus) and more, plus advertising and a strong PR campaign, we are confident our brand development team at Aeger will have a strong success on their hands.

The Brazilian King of Shaves website will be available in the next few weeks.

After our Azor featured in Wallpaper last year, we doubted we could top that - given how uber-stylish that particular magazine is. But this morning, we were delighted to see our women's version of the Azor - the Azure - in Vogue! How super-uber-cool is that!?

You can buy the Azure online here, or at larger Sainsbury's stores up and down the UK. Ladies - don't just shave - Queen of Shaves!

in the UK, our company numbers about 20 people, the vast majority of whom have been with us over 5 years, a great staff retention record. But, it's even better, as on Friday we celebrated three - Karen, Lisa & Bill - having been with us over 10 years! Jane has been with us 11, and Andy 15. I was asked at the 'Monkey Shoulder' event how you hang onto top staff - well - you treat them well, reward them in a number of different ways and simply look after them! We had a great time at the Christopher Wren Hotel & Spa in the evening, thanks to Jackie, my PA for organising it!

We've had our King of Shaves Azor Tourbus parked in Finsbury Avenue today (in the square, behind Broadgate) all day giving people the King of Shaves, and offering the opportunity to save, with our unique King of Shaves Shaving Bond.

Tim & Jenny, along with Simon Vingoe and our new marketing intern, Joe Asserton were here (very) early doors - from 7am, and as well as plenty of shaves, we've had a lot of interest in our bonds, with many people passing by having seen it advertised, or heard about it. Indeed, as soon as I arrived, I met a very nice Indian gentleman, who'd used our shaving oil for years, was fed up with NatWest, and 'signed up' for £3,000 worth. As I have said before, and I'll say again, our Shaving Bond issue is a way for us to connect with our King of Shaves consumers on many different levels, and them earning money whilst they shave, is just one of those.

I'm delighted to announce that anyone who applies for a Shaving Bond will also receive free my book about the King of Shaves story, being published by Headline Business Plus in September, likely to be 'Business Book of the Month' at a leading UK retailer, and it's called 'Building a Great Business in Tough Times: The King of Shaves Story'.

So, where there's King of Shaves, there's money to be earned, great shaves to be had, and a good read to boot (well, I've had a few journalist friends of mine read it - and they seem to rate it).

The opportunity to subscribe for a King of Shaves Shaving Bond expires on 31st July 2009, applications MUST have been received by our registrars, Equiniti by then.

Don't just shave - King of Shaves (& Save).

Although my book isn't out until September 3rd (and the cover image displayed is low res - as it isn't even printed yet) Amazon have quietly uploaded it onto their server. So, if you'd like to pre-order it, please do so - click here! Look out for more publicity, as we get nearer the book launch date, it's Business Book of the Month at WH Smith too in September.