Under the leadership of Colman M. Mockler Jr. as CEO from 1975 to 1991, the company was the target of multiple takeover attempts, from Ronald Perelman and Coniston Partners. In January 2005, Procter & Gamble announced plans to merge with the Gillette Company.

The Gillette Company's assets were incorporated into a P&G unit known internally as "Global Gillette". In July 2007, Global Gillette was dissolved and incorporated into Procter & Gamble's other two main divisions, Procter & Gamble Beauty and Procter & Gamble Household Care. Gillette's brands and products were divided between the two accordingly. The Gillette R&D center in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Gillette South Boston Manufacturing Center (known as "Gillette World Shaving Headquarters"), still exist as functional working locations under the Procter & Gamble-owned Gillette brand name. Gillette's subsidiaries Braun and Oral-B, among others, have also been retained by P&G.

History

Inception and early years

The Gillette company and brand originate from the late 19th century when salesman and inventor King Camp Gillette came up with the idea of a safety razor that used disposable blades. Safety razors at the time were essentially short pieces of a straight razor clamped to a holder. The blade had to be stropped before each shave and after a time needed to be honed by a cutler. Gillette's invention was inspired by his mentor at Crown Cork & Seal Company, William Painter, who had invented the Crown cork. Painter encouraged Gillette to come up with something that, like the Crown cork, could be thrown away once used.

While Gillette came up with the idea in 1895, developing the concept into a working model and drawings that could be submitted to the Patent Office took six years. Gillette had trouble finding anyone capable of developing a method to manufacture blades from thin sheet steel, but finally found William Emery Nickerson, an MIT graduate with a degree in chemistry. Gillette and other members of the project founded The American Safety Razor Company on September 28, 1901. The company had issues getting funding until Gillette's old friend John Joyce invested the necessary amount for the company to begin manufacturing. Production began slowly in 1903, but the following year Nickerson succeeded in building a new blade grinding machine that had bottlenecked production. During its first year of operation, the company had sold 51 razors and 168 blades, but the second year saw sales rise to 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades. The company was renamed to the Gillette Safety Razor Company in 1904 and it quickly began to expand outside the United States. In 1905 the company opened a sales office in London and a blade manufacturing plant in Paris, and by 1906 Gillette had a blade plant in Canada, a sales operation in Mexico, and a European distribution network that sold in many nations, including Russia.

First World War and the 1920s

Due to its premium pricing strategy, the Gillette Safety Razor Company's razor and blade unit sales grew at a modest pace from 1908 to 1916. Disposable razor blades still were not a true mass-market product, and barbershops and self-shaving with a straight razor were still popular methods of grooming. Among the general U.S. population, a two-day stubble was not uncommon. This changed once the United States declared war on the Central Powers in 1917; military regulations required every soldier to provide their own shaving kit, and Gillette's compact kit with disposable blades outsold competitors whose razors required stropping. Gillette marketed their razor by designing a military-only case decorated with U.S. Army and Navy insignia and in 1917 the company sold 1.1 million razors.

In 1918, the U.S. military began issuing Gillette shaving kits to every U.S. serviceman. Gillette's sales rose to 3.5 million razors and 32 million blades. As a consequence, millions of servicemen got accustomed to daily shaving using Gillette's razor. After the war, Gillette utilized this in their domestic marketing and used advertising to reinforce the habit acquired during the war.

Gillette's original razor patent was due to expire in November 1921 and to stay ahead of an upcoming competition, the company introduced the New Improved Gillette Safety Razor in spring 1921 and switched to the razor and blades pricing structure the company is known for today. While the New Improved razor was sold for $5 (equivalent to $76 in 2021) – the selling price of the previous razor – the original razor was renamed to the Old Type and sold in inexpensive packaging as "Brownies" for $1 (equivalent to $15 in 2021). While some Old Type models were still sold in various kinds of packaging for an average price of $3.50, the Brownie razors made a Gillette much more affordable for the average person and expanded the company's blade market significantly. From 1917 to 1925, Gillette's unit sales increased tenfold. The company also expanded its overseas operations right after the war by opening a manufacturing plant in Slough, near London, to build New Improved razors, and setting up dozens of offices and subsidiaries in Europe and other parts of the world.

Gillette experienced a setback at the end of the 1920s as its competitor AutoStrop sued for patent infringement. The case was settled out of court with Gillette agreeing to buy out AutoStrop for 310,000 non-voting shares. However, before the deal went through, it was revealed in an audit that Gillette had been overstating its sales and profits by $12 million over a five-year period and giving bonuses to its executives based on these numbers. AutoStrop still agreed to the buyout but instead demanded a large amount of preferred stock with voting rights. The merger was announced on October 16, 1930, and gave AutoStrop's owner Henry Gaisman controlling interest in Gillette.