Gillette Sweden/Euro DE Blade controversy

[Craig_From_Cincy]

I had an exchange with an Ebay seller from England who was selling some Gillette De blades.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... L:RTQ:US:1

I inquired about the country pf manufacture, and I got a reply that he didn't know where they were made. A follow up brought this response:

"let me inform you this true fact there is only two places that these blades are made and that is India and china i know this they are NOT made in Sweden 100% sure they're distributed throughout Europe and that's a fact.all blades made throughout the Gillette world follow the same manufacturing process.the difference on the packet is distribution and not manufacturing."

I understood that Gillette made these blades in Sweden, Russia, the USA, etc. Can anyone shed any light on this?

[golfhacker]

This thread should get some replies. In my experience, they are not all the same. The ones labeled with Sweden or Stockholm or whatever it is are better and more reliable etc.

I've certainly had problems with ones labeled Madrid and others swear against ones labeled from Mother Russia.

I could visibly see the Madrid ones being thicker than the Sweden ones and palpably feel the Madrid ones being stiffer than the Sweden ones. My face could tell the difference too.

My opinion at least.

[Pauldog]

All I know is what I read on the different packages of blades. On the 5-packs of "Swedish" blades, I don't think it says where they are manufactured, though it does list a bunch of European cities on the back.

On the 10-packs I can get in the USA, they all now say "Made in Russia". In the recent past, they would sometimes say "Made in Czech Republic" or "Made in Mexico".

[letterk]

I have some of the blades from the ebay seller you mention. I asked the same question and got the same reply. There have been a few people that claim these are the exact same blade as the Swedes. I don't know if the ebay seller is speaking only of the blue platinum blades or all Gillette blades. If it's the latter, he's dead wrong. I haven't yet tried the blades from him, but mostly because I don't really like the Swedes in the first place (to each his own).

[jmw19psu]

Y'know, I've been watching those for some time now, but haven't actually bought any for a couple reasons.
First off, I see "Gillette Super Silver" on the package, not "Gillette Platinum" as the blades spoken of here seem to. Knowing there's some blue-package blades that don't perform well just reinforces that.
And secondly, I've seen comparisons between the Gillette platinums and the Israeli Personnas that put them neck and neck, at least for the first shaves. I find the Personnas to be sharp, but harsh, though they do get smoother after a shave or two.
Seems I'm a Derby man, though even they're a little tricky for the first shave, but then it's 5 smooth shaves where I can do no wrong.

I guess I'll take these off the watch list now. John, if you do get around to trying one, I'd be curious to know the results.

Best,
Jon

[letterk]

I guess I'll throw one in tomorrow and see what it can do.

[bernards66]

Craig, That Ebay seller is either ignorant, or dishonest. As Paul pointed out, you can go check the Gillette DE blades in any US store, and they will clearly say, "Made in Russia". The various versions sold in Europe, not only the 'Platinums' with the different cities named on the back, but also those 'Super Silvers' and 'Bleaus' are all different, trust me. A reputable shavegeek connection of mine in the UK, informs me that there is a Gillette manufacturing facility two hours from his home. So, this fellow is giving you a crock, persumably so he can sell you some blades.
Regards,
Gordon

[Craig_From_Cincy]

To deepen this mystery a bit more, I had forgotten that I had ordered a few packs of these blades from another seller in England some weeks ago, and I received them after coming home from work this evening.

On the front of the package these blades say:
Gillette
Super Silver
Platinum hardened edges - Platinveredelt

And the back:
Distributed by Gillette
61476 Kronberg/Ts
Metamorfosi

Then there is something written in Cyrillic written under this, it appears to be Greek and not Russian.

Here are the blades:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

What are these blades?

I cannot believe that Gillette would have multiple manufacturing plants for DE blades within the EU, given the declining market for these products (as opposed to M3, Schick/Wilkinson Quattro and the lot). Then there is also the fact that there are no longer imports tariffs within the EU for moving products across EU country borders. Note that all of these Euro Gillette blades are marked 'distributed by' and not 'made in'. Gillette would presumably have a sale & marketing company in each country to deal with the retailers (particularly the mega chain hypermarkets like Tesco, E. LeClerc, Carrefour, Cora, Metro, Kaufland and the like). These companies could be considered as 'distributors', given that these companies tend to operate within a three tier system (manufacturer to distributor to retailer), just as the chains like Walmart, Krogers et al do here.

Gillette could also be licensing out the production of their DE blades to different independent producers across Europe. This could explain the variance in quality.

As to the Russian blades, it would make sense for Gillette to manufacture DE blades within Russia. I know from having worked for Heineken's international brands division that when Heineken strongly entered the Russian market a few years back they had to set up production within Russia due to steep import tariffs imposed by Russia on foreign made goods. It would be logical for Gillette to follow this same business model. It might also be that Russia has a very large market for DE blades as they seem to lag a few years behind the west in terms of the development of consumer goods.

It would also make sense for Gillette to use Russia as the place to manufacture blades for the US market, given the favourable exchange rate of the ruble vs the dollar, as opposed to the unfavorable exchange rate of the euro vs the dollar plus would be cheaper to make blades in Russia than the EU. The Russian production would also explain the poor quality of these blades.

Just a few thoughts to muddy up the waters a bit more!

[bernards66]

Craig, Yes, that's been pretty much my thinking also. One of the packs of Euro Gillettes I had, had part of the writing on the back in a script that I took to be Russian, and I think it was, but, I could have mistaken it. My guess all along has been that Gillette 'farms out' DE blade production in Europe to a number of different manufacturers, is several different countries. They do certainly have their own manufacturing facilities in Europe, but that doesn't mean that they necessarily make any DE blades in those facilities. I also understand their logic in making crappy DE blades in Russia, to sell in the US. In the recent past, I saw packs that were made in Mexico, and in India, and they were so marked. Finding out any hard information of this kind from Gillette seems nearly impossible, but the fact remains that those DE blades, sold under their name, with London and the Scandinavian capitals named on the back, seem superior to their other European blades that I've tried.
Regards,
Gordon

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Hi Gordon, I was hoping that you would add to this thread.

Do you think that the blades I received today are sub par vs. the Swedes? I am going to shave with one tomorrow for the first time. Wish me luck!

Cheers,
Craig

[goolimari]

mine says

'distributed by Kronberg T/s' ( i did a google on Kronberg and found it's in germany)
'
Metamorfosi - blah blah blah. the blah blah blah part contains a LOT of Alphas, Betas, and Deltas, meaning it was obviously the greek lanuguage. and also, 'Metamorfosi is greek for 'Manufactured''

so basically mine was manufactured in Greece and Distributed in Germany, sold in britain and used in Minneapolis.( and will probably be recycled in china)

[Craig_From_Cincy]

goolimari, what did you think if the shave with these blades? I had my first shave this morning. The blades are sharp, however they are quite rough on my face. I got a great deal of post shave irritation. I am going to apply the aloe-80 several times today.

I bought 50 of these blades believing that they were the 'Swedes'. I think that I will try to turn these around on Ebay.

[goolimari]

havent gotten round to using them yet..

i am trudging along the German merkur>Israeli Personna>Turkish Derby> Swedish Gillettes > Japanese Feathers highway..
am at the derby stage right now. next stop would be the Swedes.

This is more like a computer game. i have had a couple of 'Failed with the derbys. Go back to Israelis and hone your skills and then come back' kinda experiences.

but it keeps getting better all the time! will let you know once i pop one in my HD.

[Bob]

This is a very interesting discussion. I suspect that Gillette does, indeed, farm out some manufacturing operations. The mutiplicity of reported manufacturing locations, plus the declining market for DE blades in countries like the U.S., would seem to bear this out. It doesn't make sense to me that Gillette would continue to have all these blade factories all over the world, unless, of course, the plants also make cartridges.

In any event, the fact that the eBay seller claims that all Gillette DE blades are made in either India or China, while we have proof that some are made in Russia, confirms that he lacks either knowledge or veracity.

[bernards66]

Craig, Yes, those sound like the blades that I took to have 'Russian' script on the back. I've tried at least four other 'Euro Gillette' DE blades, and none of them were as good as the 'Swedes' IMO. The next best were those 'Lisbon, Madrid, Milano' numbers. No, as far as I'm concerned, the so-called Swedes, obtained from UK sources like auravita.com are what I want. I'm not interested in any of the others.
Regards,
Gordon

[letterk]

Perhaps we need to do a blind test here? I have both the Swedes and the eBay Gillettes. I'd be happy to send both, sans packaging, to someone or two who is very familiar with the Swedes. Gordon?

[Taffa]

Without a doubt Gordon is the ideal person for that test,i was the first person to send a Milano blades to Gordon and a couples a days later he post the blades are not the same Gillette Swedes.Regards,Eddie

[lux]

Hello fellow wet shavers,

There seems to be a trade law loophole or perhaps several. The country of manufacturing should be required on each package. This being said, one begins to see labels like "made in the European Union".

Historically, for example, Czech manufacturing was excellent before WW2. So "made in Sweden", even if it were labelled as such and true, would not necessarily mean a better quality than e. g. "made in Slovakia".

Recent experience in several areas tends, however, to indicate that Indian-Chinese manufacturing quality in the shaving arena is seldom as good as in the EU.

Kind regards,

lux

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Well, it's 5:00 now, and my neck still burns, and I have red bumps all over my neck to boot. I am going to have to give me neck and chin some TLC tonight. I will likely have to skip shaving altogether in the morning, and catch a not to close shave in the evening before I take the Wife out for the evening.

I think that we are right about the licensed out manufacturing Gordon, there is just to much variance in quality from one Euro blade to the next. Either way, I'm not giving these blades a 2nd chance. They are going straight to Ebay.

Cheers,
Craig

[mcplat]

I have Gillette Platinum blades that were made in Brazil and are not too bad, very close to the Swedes IMO. They are very recent production, so that is at least one other factory that makes them.

Regards,

Michael