RAZOR WARS Cutting edge: 4-blade disposables

U.S. and Japanese companies are joining forces for the product.
BOSTON (AP) -- The battle of the blades is sharpening again -- and this time, Schick and Gillette aren't on the cutting edge.
As the two market leaders wrestle in court over Schick's four-bladed Quattro nondisposable shaving system, two lesser-known rivals are joining the one-upmanship.
Los Angeles-based Universal Group, which sells the Noxzema and Old Spice shaving cream and razor brands, and The Kai Group, Japan's leading disposable razor maker, last week announced a partnership to sell the first four-blade disposable razors.
In stores in May
The men's and women's products will hit shelves in May at prices ranging between $4 and $5 for a three-pack.
In the context of the recent industrywide frenzy to add bells and whistles to shaving products, the four-blade disposable is a relatively small and predictable advance. Most of the technology and marketing attention in the shaving industry is focused on the more expensive shaving systems and their blades, rather than on disposable razors.
Still, the announcement signals yet another choice for consumers and perhaps, down the line, a rival for the two big players to think about. It also again raises the question: Where will the battle of the blades end?
Gillette debuted the first two-blade shaving system in 1971, but it was Kai that broke the three-blade barrier in 1998. That held until last year, when Schick Wilkinson-Sword introduced "Quattro," a four-bladed nondisposable shaving system that is currently the subject of patent litigation.
Gillette declined to take the four-blade bait, responding to Quattro with a souped-up, vibrating version of its Mach3Turbo. Three blades are better than two, it insisted, but four is one too many.
Meanwhile, Universal first teamed up with Kai last year and began selling three-blade shaving systems, under the Old Spice and Noxzema brand names. It declined to release sales figures.
Analysts figure the one-upmanship had its limits -- would anyone really try a five-bladed razor? -- but in the blade arms race, nothing is for sure.
Afshin Moghavem, president of Universal Group, said he doesn't think four-blade razors are inherently better than three-blade ones. Yet this one is, he says, because of its moisturizing strips and thinner, fourth blade set apart from the other three.
"Is four going to give you a better shave than three?" he said. "Depends who makes it. Not necessarily. Have we done a better job with a four-blade? I think absolutely."
A spokeswoman for Gillette, which sold $3.87 billion in blades and razors last year and claims a 57-percent market share in disposables, declined to comment.
Jacqueline Burwitz, a spokeswoman for Schick parent company Energizer Holdings of St. Louis, said the company had expected competitors to enter the four-blade segment, and was confident in Quattro.
"There's not a lot of interaction between disposable users and systems users," she said. "Once you're a systems user, you're a systems user."
The Kai Group dates to 1908, when the grandfather of Japanese president Koji Endo began manufacturing pocketknives. It made Japan's first razor blades in 1932, and makes cutlery, knives and other toiletries.