Thank you for all this insight - it's genuinely fascinating.1. Yes, of course there is R&D money for DE, although smaller in percentage than S/E. Saying that if the idea is proven to be good, with return on investment within the timeline, then money for R&D is always available. In an ideal world it would be great if the R&D ideas could be shared or applied to both products, but unlikely to happen. During my time in charge of DE, we were always actively developing ideas in the group
2. I'll let Gillette tell you that or I'll allow the customer to decide
If I may pose a question - it's been mentioned on a different thread that production in plants (PPI in this particular case) is set up to deliver a particular product in mass (Gillette Platinums for example) and is then subsequently set up for the next product. This is why we we see the gradual introduction of changes such as packaging or print to laser etched branding etc. Is this the case across all (or most) plants? Also, does this mean that the difficulty in obtaining some blades is potentially temporary as their availability will be improve after a future production run (I'm thinking Polsilvers and the like here)?