King of Shaves up for sale
King of Shaves, the independent British male grooming brand, has appointed advisors to sell the company.
The company, founded by entrepreneur Will King in 1993, has appointed Alpha Advisory PTE – a Singapore based corporate advisory firm – to advise on “strategic options” for the brand.
Speculation on the future of the company in the past week has valued the King of Shaves brand at £45m.
Spectrum Brands, which owns the grooming brand Remington in North America and has a multi-year deal to distribute King of Shaves in the US, is rumoured to be a potential bidder for the company.
It said yesterday, however, that it has “not offered to acquire” the British firm.
Another potential bidder is razor maker Kai Industries, which bought a 7% stake in King of Shaves for £1.5m, earlier this year.
The brand is currently rolling out across the UK and is preparing to launch its Azor % razor in the autumn to take on Gillette’s Fusion ProGlide.
Since launch, the King of Shaves has challenged Procter & Gamble’s market leading men’s shaving brand Gillette.
King of Shaves claims to have sales of around £25m ($40m) and its Azor system razor was the 3rd best selling manual system razor handle in the 12 months to 4th September 2010 According to IRI Infoscan.
