In an effort to gain a foothold in the $3 billion razor market, Unilever has purchased monthly razor subscription service Dollar Shave Club for one billion razors. Excuse me, I meant to say, in a deal worth $1 billion.
Unilever wants to compete with Procter & Gamble’s Gillette in the men’s personal care arena, and to do that, it needs to get grooming tools.
The consumer products company will pay cash for Dollar Shave Club, which brings razors to subscribers’ doors every month starting for as little as $1, according to insider cited by Bloomberg.
The purchase is expected to close in the third quarter, marking Unilever’s biggest U.S. purchase since it paid $3.7 billion to buy haircare maker Alberto Culver in 2011. Unilever declined to comment.
With its new acquisition, Unilever will try to build on the subscription model Dollar Shave Club has used since 2012, bringing in 3.2 million customers in the process and taking a big old slice out of the estimated $3 billion men’s shaving product market. The company is known for its clever, sometimes expletive-laden commercials touting its blades as “f*cking great” and a cost-effective alternative to other brands’ razors.
And there’s a fierce battle waging out there for men’s faces, to be sure: in late 2015, Gillette sued Dollar Shave Club, claiming the company had violated its intellectual property by using patented technology in its razors, without getting approval from Gillette. Dollar Shave Club then filed a countersuit earlier this year, saying it hadn’t done any such thing.
Unilever Takes on Gillette With $1 Billion Dollar Shave Deal [Bloomberg]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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