WILKINSON SWORD: CHANGE OF HOUSE

Humanity often forgets that the first company ever created was the family.

There are only a few essential elements needed to run a business: money, which is often safer in the hands of women; the common sense of a father; and the children, the product of a love that was either carefully planned or simply the result of passion, impulse, and human error.

When I look at Wilkinson Sword, from its foundation to the long list of owners who have possessed it since, I cannot help thinking that there is a progressive pattern.

What did not work was never truly improved.

It was simply covered by mountains of money.

And money, as we all know, is excellent at covering nonsense.

1891–1973

The Wilkinson Sword Company.

This was the real company.

Eighty-two years of genuine life, history, innovation, storytelling, and that typically English reserve that still makes it a model for many businesses today.

1973–1978

1978–1989

1989–1992

1992–2000

2000–2003

2003–2015

2015–Today — Edgewell Personal Care

What remains is an aristocratic aunt who has changed many houses and slept in many rooms.

She has been bought, sold, inherited, reorganized, and relocated.

Yet she has created very little of her own.

She remains standing where she always stood, with roughly three billion dollars in annual revenue and a reputation built largely by previous generations.

And so they returned to an old marketing trick from the 1980s.

The same product.

The same blade.

The same company.

Different names depending on the market.

Wilkinson in Europe.

Schick in North America, Asia, and Russia.

Aunt Wilkinson kept the family silver.

She simply moved to another house.

Today, the address has changed many times.

The lady has not.