How a commando mindset builds business with the founder of The Bluebeards Revenge

Every barber brand starts with an idea but it takes risk, vision and a whole lot of hard work to make one thrive. MB gathered a little back story on David Hildrew, founder of The Bluebeards Revenge. Its a brand that anticipated the barber boom and is reaping rewards, find out how here.

So David, have you always been a business man? No, I come from a military background and served Queen and Country in the Falklands. The commando mindset dictates that you should be the first to understand, the first to adapt and respond, and the first to overcome. Its an ethos that has followed me into the world of business. It has taught me to always strive to do better and to resist the easy option; courage and determination are everything when it comes to running a successful business.

How did you come up with the brand positioning? I started an online shaving store called The Shaving Shack in 2005. It became clear to me that wet shaving was experiencing a renaissance, there was a real gap in the market for a range that brought a bit of fun and humour to the table as well as producing barbershop-quality consumables and shaving hardware.

Has the brand evolved since launch? Yes. The brand started life as a single shaving cream and since then it has flourished. Today, we have over 90 products. When the brand first began to grow, it remained shaving centric but we’ve become a complete grooming range that caters from everything from beards to hair.

How do barbers influence your R&D? We work very closely with the barbering community, and have strong links with the British Barbers Association, as well as keenly supporting training academies across the country and running renowned wet shaving competition Britain’s Best Shave in a bid to drive up industry standards. Good relationships provide us with valuable feedback on how our products are performing and what products might be missing from the range. For example, we are currently working on a selection of pro-size products, and its all down to barbers telling us that its what they want.

Why do you support charity? We have strong links to men’s cancer charity Orchid. Men aren’t the best at talking about their worries and fears, and in many cases they are quite unaware of what they should be looking out for when it comes to the signs and symptoms of male-specific cancers. We are in a privileged position in that we are able to reach a large number of men, so we now print advice and information on the signs and symptoms of testicular, penile and prostate cancers on the inside of every piece of our product packaging. It could happen to any of us, and we are keen to look after our customers – so getting the message out there is vital.

Visit bluebeards-revenge.co.uk. Follow @thebluebeards.