In 1926, the year of the Company's 25th anniversary, King C. Gillette wrote of the Company’s flagship product, the safety razor, "There is no other article for individual use so universally known or widely distributed. In my travels, I have found it in the most northern town in Norway and in the heart of the Sahara Desert."

These words could just as easily be written today — not just about Gillette razors, but about the wide range of top-selling Gillette products.

King C Gillette

From Boston to Bangkok, Johannesburg to Mexico City to Berlin, the modern traveller encounters a Gillette product portfolio far broader, and a worldwide presence far stronger, than any envisioned by the Company's founder. The Gillette Company today is the global market leader in nearly a dozen major consumer products categories.

In the more than 100 years since the Company was founded, Gillette has gained, held and strengthened leadership positions through the Company's strategy of managing its business with a long-term, global perspective.

This demonstrated ability to generate long-term, profitable growth in a changing global marketplace rests on several fundamental strengths. These include a constantly increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge in core businesses, innovative products that embody meaningful technological advances and an immense manufacturing capability that produces billions of flawless products every year — reliably, efficiently and cost-effectively.

Transforming innovative ideas into useful daily products sold at a fair price engenders another fundamental Gillette strength — strong and enduring consumer brand loyalty around the world.

Skillful marketing of superior technology to achieve worldwide leadership is the goal of The Gillette Company. It is a goal pursued in global businesses that are large and healthy, with tremendous potential derived from normal market development, as well as from growth stimulated by new products. Nowhere are these qualities more evident than in the Company's powerful grooming, battery and oral care franchises.

As its exceptional performance throughout the 20th century has shown, Gillette is without peer in the grooming business. The Company has the scientific knowledge to create, and the technical ability to develop and produce, hair removal products that deliver a superior shave, whether wet or dry, whether for men or women. An array of premium quality shaving preparations and after-shaves complements the shaving process and rounds out the Gillette grooming franchise. Additional market presence and support is provided by the Company's well-established deodorant / antiperspirant brands.

Batteries are another thriving worldwide business in which the Company competes successfully. Duracell, the most popular brand of alkaline batteries in the world, is the clear global leader in the growing alkaline battery market.

Today, consumers around the world are embracing a growing number of portable digital electronic devices. Enhancing its growth prospects, Duracell offers strategic power-consulting services to leading device manufacturers to further the inclusion of alkaline batteries as a power source in these increasingly popular consumer devices.

Within the grooming and batteries businesses, Gillette has a formidable portfolio of global brands. These brands continue to grow as a broad offering of products and price points attracts new consumers.

In the grooming business for example, the great majority of Gillette male shavers in developing markets use double-edge blades. The first step up the performance / price ladder for these consumers is to advance to Gillette twin-blade shaving systems or disposable razors. In more developed markets, the movement may be entirely within the systems category, as consumers trade up from twin-blade to triple-blade shaving.

Similarly, more than 75% of the world's consumers of batteries use less costly zinc carbon batteries, rather than better performing alkaline. Once converted to Duracell alkaline batteries, these consumers can then trade up to the advanced technologies and top performance of the Duracell brand.

Leading global brands are the strength of The Gillette Company. They demonstrate our global commitment to growth through innovation, which will assure the Company's long-term competitive success as a world leader in the consumer products marketplace.