American Safety Razor Company

For the company of the same name that was founded in 1901 and renamed as the Gillette Safety Razor Company, see Gillette (brand)

American Safety Razor Company
Industry Personal care
Founded 1906 (as the Personna American Safety Razor Company)
Headquarters Verona, Virginia, US
Products Razor, Shave brush
Parent Edgewell Personal Care
Website Personna

American Safety Razor Company is a personal care brand founded in the early 20th century (1906) by a merging of the Gem Cutlery Company & Ever-Ready and has been a principal competitor to Gillette for a century and more (the original name of the Gillette company when it was incorporated in 1901 had been "American Safety Razor Company", but it would be renamed in 1904 for its founder, King C. Gillette) [1] The company produces a wide range of personal care, medical, industrial blades and cutting tools with international operations in Canada, England, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Israel.[2]

History

Gem Safety Razor advertised at the 1920 World Series at Ebbets Field.

Star Safety Razor

Frederick and Otto Kampfe were immigrants from Saxony, Germany. In 1875 they applied for a U.S. patent and introduced the Star Razor, the first safety razor made in the United States. The brothers continued to improve their design and sold their products under the Star Safety Razor name in Brooklyn, New York.[3]

Gem Cutlery Company

Jerry Reichard, after working for the Kampfe Brothers for 23 years, leaves to start his own company – the Gem Cutlery Company in 1898. Its first product, the Gem Safety Razor, borrowed heavily from the Star Razor in design but soon outpaces the Star in sales.[4]

Ever-Ready

In 1903 Jerry Reichard leaves Gem Safety Razor Company to form yet another razor and blade producer, along with August Scheuber the company was briefly named 'The Reichard & Scheuber Mfc Co.' before it became 'The Yankee Company'. The Yankee Company made wedge-blade razors under the name Yankee, Mohican & Winner. The Yankee Company, is renamed Ever-Ready in 1905. Gem & Ever-Ready merge in 1906 and is incorporated as the Personna American Safety Razor Company. In 1906 abandoning the wedge-blade design they introduced the standard single-edge rib back blade that is still used today.[5] In 1915 Ever-Ready Shaving Brushes were first introduced and continued to be produced until the early 1990s.

Safetee Soap Corporation

In December 1919 The Safetee Soap Corporation formed as a subsidiary of American Safety Razor Corporation and produced a line of shaving soaps, creams, powders, talc and aftershave lotions to compliment the safety razor business.[6] The Safetee Soap line was cross-promoted in pamphlets included in other ASR products.[7]

American Safety Razor Corporation

Gem & Ever-Ready merge with Star and becomes the American Safety Razor Corporation in 1919. Chartered in the Commonwealth of Virginia while razor and blade production remained in Brooklyn. By January 1921 they had produced 1,800,000 safety razors; 110,000,000 razor blades; 1,000,000 shaving brushes; 2,000,000 cakes of shaving soap.[8] By 1942 it had introduced and popularized the phrase five o'clock shadow. In 1953 American Safety Razor acquires the Pal, Treet and Personna brands after purchasing the Pal Blade Company. These two product names continue to be made today. In 1954 the factory relocated to Staunton, Virginia, after the Brooklyn City Planning Commissions planned civic center encroached on the factory with plans to redevelop the industrial area into office and residential use.[9] The American Safety Razor factory building, at 333 Jay Street, then became the new campus for the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

Seeking diversification Philip Morris acquires American Safety Razor in 1960. In 1963 American Safety Razor is the first maker of stainless steel blades. Originally sold under the Personna brand name. Philip Morris in 1968, purchases the Burma-Vita Company, makers of the American cultural icon product Burma-Shave. The first blade made with tungsten steel is introduced 1970, known as the Personna 74. In 1974 American Line Brand of industrial products is introduced expanding the company into industrial blades. In 1977 executives purchase Personna American Safety Razor Company from Philip Morris in a management buyout.

Energizer bought the privately held American Safety Razor in 2011, when it filed bankruptcy.[10] In 2015, Energizer spun off the personal care division as Edgewell Personal Care.[11] Edgewell announced the sale of its Personna Industrial Division to an investment group who renamed to division AccuTec Blades.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "Gillette Company" in The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising, John McDonough and Karen Egolf, editors (Routledge, 2015)
  2. ↑ The National JobBank. Adams Media.
  3. ↑ Williams, David (November 18, 1915). The Iron Age (Volume 96, Issues 15–23 ed.). p. 1211.
  4. ↑ "Personna History". personna.com.
  5. ↑ Waits, Robert K. (November 17, 2014). A Safety Razor Compendium. p. 389.
  6. ↑ Printers' Ink (Volume 114 ed.). March 17, 1921. p. 20.
  7. ↑ How Safetee Soap Creates New Sales. The American Cutler. January 1921. pp. 7–8.
  8. ↑ Moodys Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities (Volume 1; Volume 2, Part 1 ed.). Moody Manual Company. 1922.
  9. ↑ Freeman, Joshua Benjamin (2001). Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II. The New Press. p. 147.
  10. ↑ Peters, Laura. "Verona Energizer plant may shut down". newsleader.com.
  11. ↑ "Edgewell History". edgewell.com.
  12. ↑ "Investment group purchases Personna Industrial Division". augustafreepress.com.
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