WHEN Will King decided to call his shaving oil King of Shaves, he faced a
problem. Using the words “King of” was deemed to be a laudatory trademark
implying that his product was the best. It was not allowed.
Undaunted, King simply hired a patent attorney and argued his case in the
European Patent Court. He won.
King has spent his life refusing to take no for an answer. The eldest of three
boys and the son of two teachers, he was brought up in Lowestoft, Suffolk,
where he became passionate about sailing. By the age of 15 he was Britain’s
youngest sailing instructor.
After taking a degree in mechanical engineering at Portsmouth polytechnic,
which he hated, he applied for a job selling advertising space for a
marketing magazine. It promised a big salary if he fulfilled sales targets.
He said: “I’ve always believed that persistence is a good quality. I started
making 220 calls a day to have nine effective calls to close two or three
deals. It was eye-opening. I learnt a huge amount.”
After three months he was offered a job with a conference company selling
events. He set himself a target of doubling his salary, learning to drive
and buying a flat within his first year. He achieved all three.
But then things started to go wrong. There was a recession and the company ran
into trouble. King had to let people go and then he, too, was made
redundant.
He realised, however, that although people had stopped spending money on
conferences they were still buying small, essential items such as batteries
and razors. So he decided to find a product he could sell himself.
King always had trouble shaving because of his sensitive skin. The razor would
leave him itchy and bleeding.
One day his girlfriend suggested he put some bath oil on his face before
shaving to see if it made a difference. It did. He said: “It felt fantastic.
I didn’t get any razor burn. I thought if this works for me, it will work
for other people.”
Inspired, he bought a selection of essential oils from an aromatherapy shop
and mixed them together at home to create a shaving oil.
Then he tracked down the supplier and bought some more, funding his venture by
taking out a £10,000 loan and borrowing £30,000 from two friends in return
for shares in the business. He said: “I filled 10,000 bottles by hand at
home. It took me two weeks.”
King decided that if his oil was to be a success it had to be stocked by
Harrods. So, using the cold-calling techniques he had learnt, he managed to
talk to the owner, Mohamed al-Fayed, in person and persuaded him to take his
oil.
It was hard work, however. By the end of the first year King had achieved
sales of only £300, mostly to friends and family, and losses of £30,000.
When he needed £10,000 for a publicity campaign he had to sell 12.5% of the
company to a friend’s brother.
He also had to overcome a great deal of scepticism. “We had this tiny little
bottle of oil and nobody believed it would work,” said King. “When I told
people I was going to go up against Gillette and change the face of shaving,
they would yawn and say, how are you going to do that?” Indeed, people were
so convinced he was heading for failure that King started a sideline
business selling surfing clothes. It was a bad idea.
He said: “Everybody thought the clothing business would work really well, but
none of the surf shops paid its bills and the venture took up a lot of my
time. After two years I closed it down and then I realised I had nearly
mucked up King of Shaves because I was juggling too many balls.”
By 1994 he had persuaded Boots to stock his oil, and sales had risen to
£58,000. He said: “It sat on a Boots shelf with a sad little homemade label
stuck on the front of the bottle. But it worked and because it looked
amateurish people thought they would give it a try. I would get phone calls
and letters saying how it had transformed someone’s life.”
King also worked hard to get editorial coverage in the new wave of men’s
magazines, such as FHM and GQ.
In 1995 he launched a second shaving oil and the following year a range of
men’s skincare products. By now he had run out of money, so he had to get a
£100,000 loan and start invoice discounting to bring in more.
It was a turning point for the business. King of Shave products began to be
stocked in supermarkets and the company started making fragrances under
licence for the clothing chain Ted Baker. A King of Blades razor will be
launched next year and King also has plans to expand into America.
The business, in which King has a 35% stake, is expected to have sales of
£12.2m this year.
Now 40 and with a son but separated from his wife, King thinks the secret of
his success has been to create a product that people need. He said: “You
have to be able to demonstrate that there is a reason for it in people’s
lives. Why isn’t there a five-wheeled car? Because people don’t need one.”
Success also calls for a large dose of self-belief. He said: “You can do
anything if you believe you can and have the persistence to get on and do
it.
“I enjoy the challenge of doing what people might think is impossible. People
think that Gillette is completely unassailable because it is at the top of
the tree. But big companies were small companies once and people forget
that.”
