Companies and Brands
The Gillette Company
Also Known As Gillette
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The Gillette Company is the American personal care and grooming products manufacturer built around the safety razor. Inventor King Camp Gillette and engineer William Nickerson founded it as the American Safety Razor Company in Boston in 1901, renaming it the Gillette Safety Razor Company in 1904 after Gillette's patent was granted. It grew into a diversified consumer products company before Procter and Gamble acquired it in 2005. Gillette's own early razors were sold at a premium rather than given away cheaply, and the razor and blades pricing pattern popularly credited to Gillette was in fact invented by competitors after his key patents expired around 1921.
Facts
Company TypeSafety razor and personal care products manufacturer 1 Founded Year HeadquartersBoston, Massachusetts, U.S. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The razor-and-blades pricing pattern is popularly, though inaccurately, attributed to Gillette and its safety razor; Gillette's own early razors were priced at a premium, and competitors invented the loss-leader-razor, profit-margin-blade pattern only after his patents expired around 1921.
Founded By
Invented the disposable-blade safety razor and founded the American Safety Razor Company, later Gillette, in 1901.
MIT-trained engineer who solved the mass-production problems of Gillette's blade design and co-founded the company as a major shareholder.
Operates In
Gillette manufactures personal care and grooming products rather than operating stores; Retail Industry is the closest sector category this atlas currently tracks for a consumer products manufacturer.
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