Well, in the UK - quite a lot. Here's my take on what's going on, 52 weeks to 3/10/09.
Sales of system razor handles:
Grew, both in value (+7.1% to £32.9m) & volume (+12% to 7.4m units). From launching our Azor in June 2008, our handle market share volume increased to 5.6%, Wilkinson Sword's was 24% (+0.5%) & Gillette's 53% (+6.5%). However, Gillette's volume increase was at a value cost, with its value share declining by 1.1%. Conversely, Wilkinson Sword's grew by 8.1% (driven by the launch of the Quattro Precision Trimmer) and Azor value grew by 309% (value) & 357% (volume).
Sales of system razor blades:
Things get much more interesting here. Overall, sales declined by a whopping 7% value (from £172.4m to £160.3m) and 11% by volume (from 130.5m cartridges to 116.3m cartridges), almost entirely driven by Gillette system razor blades (comprising Sensor, Mach3 & Fusion). Whilst Fusion was in growth (+7.8%), Mach3 was in decline (-19%) as was Sensor (-19%).
Sales of Azor cartridges grew 1,161% to 1.2m cartridges; sales of Wilkinson Sword cartridges declined by 1% in volume to 11.6m cartridges.
So, what's happening? Well, as the overall shaving 'hardware' market was £309m (down by £7.2m, -2.3%) and the disposable razor market was also down (by 1.9% to £46.1m) and 2.5% then, simply put, men are A) moving from Gillette (mostly) and Wilkinson Sword (slightly), B) making their cartridges last longer and C) buying our King of Shaves Azor, where the cartridges are designed to last longer.
Result.
