Dovo/Merkur Bankrupt!!

Actually, its hoiTy toiTy. I only know because I had to look up how bad I was being insulted. You find lots of ways to be condescending. Congratulations.

In his defense, I didn’t think he was trying to insult anyone. Just trying to describe a part of the market that is beyond utilitarian and making razor purchases as an indulgence/collector motive. Let’s be honest, a $35 Merkur is a tool. A $200 X Razor is beyond that.


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Actually, its hoiTy toiTy. I only know because I had to look up how bad I was being insulted. You find lots of ways to be condescending. Congratulations.

In his defense, I didn’t think he was trying to insult anyone. Just trying to describe a part of the market that is beyond utilitarian and making razor purchases as an indulgence/collector motive. Let’s be honest, a $35 Merkur is a tool. A $200 X Razor is beyond that.


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A $400+ X Razor is way and I mean way beyond that

...No society in history has created a thriving middle class by relying on slave labour...

The Roman Empire had slavery from Day One until it fell....almost 1,500 years. We have a ways yet to go it appears. 

Actually, its hoiTy toiTy. I only know because I had to look up how bad I was being insulted. You find lots of ways to be condescending. Congratulations.

You're welcome, Looty. 

Can not state having known of nor known academicians proclaiming Rome had a thriving middle class....  in fact, slavery inherently inhibits economic mobility and institutionalizes massive wealth and social inequality.

But honestly this a spurious debate where our thoughts and solutions have no impact on the outcome. 

Will factually state Dovo makes more than razors with their grooming tools being world class

Looty...I see you did it again! I was gonna give you the benefit of the doubt by assuming it was unintentional but I now know better. Touche.

Looty...I see you did it again! I was gonna give you the benefit of the doubt by assuming it was unintentional but I now know better. Touche.

You'd be wrong. I don't know you nor read your posts (aside from these). Sorry to disappoint you.

I'm not surprised. When I started wet shaving, many years ago, Merkur was the only game in town. And their safety razors were poorly coated. The coating would flake off leaving the pot metal exposed. They improved their quality control, eventually, but, according to vendors I spoke with, they were utterly indifferent to complaints. 

Also, even as the shaving world became surfeited with high quality stainless steel safety razors, they declined to make one. They even declined to make a Progress with a metal tip, though they hated the Mergress. 

As far as I can tell they did nothing to compete for marketshare with all of the newcomers. And the market for cutlery and straight razors is quite limited and not prone to much repeat business. 

I would like to see someone invest in the company and start making high quality straight razors--straight razors with tolerances as tight as what Wolfman or Timeless or ATT have been turning out instead of the razors where one side has more blade exposure than the other, etc. And how about blades? Merkur blades are among the most reviled blades on the market. For good reason. If they made great blades that might give them another source of income. 

Let's stop stirring the pot and go back to the facts. 

Dovo / Merkur ist not one company, but two companies. Affected by the bankruptcy is only the Dovo part, not the Merkur part.
Dovo has been impacted by plummeting sales and less sales volume. 
Dovo is not closing shop, but looking for restructuring.

Source (German): Ulrich Wiethoff (CEO of Dovo/Merkur)

Hallo Herr Seffern,

ja, die Transformation der Märkte aus den letzten Jahren hat uns hart getroffen. Sinkende Umsätze und geringe Aufträge für dieses Jahr haben die Gesellschafter der Fa. DOVO Stahlwaren GmbH & Co. KG dazu bewogen, die Insolvenz zu beantragen. Das ist mit einer 114 jährigen Tradition bedauerlich entspricht irgendwie aber dem Wandel den wir gerade alle in vielen Bereichen des Lebens erfahren.

Ich möchte hier deutlich hervorheben, dass die eigenständige Firma MERKUR Stahlwaren GmbH & Co. KG davon ausgenommen ist. Der Betrieb ist unabhängig von DOVO.

Aktuell läuft die Produktion nach einer 'Coronapause' wieder zu 100%, damit ist die Versorgung der Märkte für die nächsten Monate gesichert.
In den letzten Jahren wurden im Zuge der Nachfolge neue Eigentümer für DOVO gesucht, leider ohne Erfolg. Ich habe persönlich die Hoffnung, dass mit der aktuellen Situation neue Interessenten angesprochen werden und doch noch jemand Spaß daran hat die Marke und viele einmalige Produkte weiter zu führen.

Wie wir schon mal besprochen haben, ist das einzige was wir benötigen 'Verkauf' davon leben wir mit allen Mitarbeitern und Lieferanten.

Sie dürfen diesen Text auch gerne veröffentlichen. In den gerade sehr ereignisreichen Tagen ist dies eine erste Ansprache an Sie als Verbraucher.

Too many posters on wet shaving forums fall prey to "insular" thinking and cling to the belief that hordes of people are switching to traditional DE/SE shaving and I just don't see any concrete data to buttress that belief. Merkur plodded along for years selling to a small niche market as there were no other real makers of modern DE razors. Then came the artisans and then the Chinese. It was a double blow to them I'm sure. Why would someone buy a Zamak Merkur when they can get a Chinese clone for under $20 (and often under $10) that is essentially the same item sans name? 

As I see it there are essentially three categories of DE shavers:

1.  those who use a vintage razor like myself

2.  those who buy cheap Chinese clones, Baili, RiMei, Weishi, etc. 

3.  those who buy hoidy toidy artisan razors and that is surely a very, very, very small percentage of an already microscopic market. I would lump those buying artisan SE razors into this group as well. 

You just don't read of people buying Merkur like they were five or six years ago. They were IMO essentially doomed when the Chinese started making blatant copies as it's a Walmart world nowadays and price sells.

What about Edwin Jagger and Muhle? They make moderately priced, very high quality razors. The Parker Variant might also fall into this category. All of them compete directly with Merkur. Merkur raised its prices over the years, yet the quality was not as good as the EJ and Muhle.

There is a fourth catagory of DE shavers of which I include myself. I am an enthusiast and collector, but retired and on a tighter budget. I have several vintage razors, several chinese clones, several Merkur/Muhle german razors, and several artisan razors which are mostly under $80. I only have 2 razors over $100 (Mergress & Rex), with the Rex Ambassador as the most expensive in my collection ($181 in the DFS group buy, which was a great deal). I have learned a lot about shaving from the considerable "diversity" of my collection, and enjoy using all but a couple of my razors. At some time I intend to learn how to use a straight razor and purchase several of those as well. I consider the "hoidy toidy" artisan razors as those between $200 and $600 (Timeless, Wolfman, Carbon, H&S, etc.), and those are purchased by the very, very, very small percentage of enthusiast shavers. I do not consider an artisan razors such as the Razorock Game Changer, Classic Shaving Occams Razor or Rockwell 6C in the "hoidy toidy" class, due to their reasonable cost. There is a large group of people who can have a diverse collection to enjoy, while staying on a budget.