New Razor Blade Manufacturer?

[Gone Gray]

Maybe the shavepocalypse is not going to happen any time soon...

http://www.engineeringcapacity.com/news101/business-news/cutting-edge-tooling

 

[Gorigoitia]

http://www.engineeringcapacity.com/news101/business-news/cutting-edge-tooling

 

[Maxime D.]

Who's the buyer ? Vidyut or New one ?

 

[Mitsimonsta]

It says it in the article - "Bangladesh Blade Factory".

A quick Google turns up this: http://www.bsec.gov.bd/html/bbfl.php

Bangladesh Blade Factory Ltd. was established in the year 1982 with the Technical Collaboration of M/s. Wilkinson Sword Co. of England for producing double edge stainless steel razor blade of international standard.

Presently producing 500 lac blades yearly, which is 5% of the total demand of the country. The company plans to install some new machinery to produce 1000 lac blades per year which will be about 10% of the country's total demand.

It appears to be a government-owned manufacturer by the link URL.

The only pack image I could find was this:

 

[dcobranchi]

It sounds like the Indian gov't just told Gillette to take a flying leap.

 

[Slash McCoy]

It sounds like the Indian gov't just told Gillette to take a flying leap.

Why would the Indian gov't buy a blade factory in Bangladesh?

 

[man00ver]

I'm going to guess that the equipment is used to make the much-discussed 7am blades. This product description from Amazon contains a tiny clue:

"Appreciated for their sharpness, the 7AM blades are made using Swedish steel on modern manufacturing equipment. Plated with chromium and platinum for sharpness and durability. These blades are made on Wilkinson machinery and are said to have more flexibility and more foregiveness when shaving. These blades are sharp, durable, and an excellent value. Imported from Bangladesh."

 

[OldGreyGuy]

It sounds like the Indian gov't just told Gillette to take a flying leap.

Oops, supplies may dry up, time to buy more blades.

As if I really needed any excuse to buy more blades.

 

[Mitsimonsta]

It sounds like the Indian gov't just told Gillette to take a flying leap.

Not necessarily. They may have provided finance on commercial terms - not as if a government cannot invest in a company and expect a return right? Look at Temasek- the Singaporean Government national wealth fund. They invest in companies looking for commercial returns to build the wealth of Singapore. This can be a direct stake in capital or shares, or providing finance.

Australia has the 'Future Fund' along the same lines, and sale proceeds of Telstra Privatisation was put in there, along with the remaining Government-held Telstra shares which have been sold off over the last 18 months.

There may or may not be supply agreements in return. See below.

Why would the Indian gov't buy a blade factory in Bangladesh?

Who said they did? The article only says that finance for the new equipment was provided by the Indian Government.

As I previously posted, the factory is owned by the BANGLADESHI GOVERNMENT.

So there could be a few scenarios which apply to this situation, either:

• Indian Government takes a stake in Bangladeshi Government enterprise, forming a joint venture; or
• Indian Government provides low-interest loan to Bangladeshi Government enterprise as a 'Development loan'

I can see an issue here where the Indian Government knows that Gillette will pull out of the DE Blade manufacturing market locally OR Gillette is pushing prices too high and it becomes unaffordable. So they invest (either as direct captal injection or as a low-interest loan) in an incumbent competitor to Gillette and also secures a DE Blade supply for its citizens. Supply may be governed as just through competition, or in an offtake agreement - i.e. we will buy 50% of the new capacity for 5 years.

Oops, supplies may dry up, time to buy more blades.

As if I really needed any excuse to buy more blades.

If these are 7AM blades (and I am not sure that John is on the money here) then they are similar to the Gillette 365 blades, or possibly the 'Topaz' blades. I did not enjoy shaving with any of these 3 blades at all. Don't worry yourself too much.

I have never seen the 'Sword' blades in the picture that I posted.