Horror of horrors! This is no Halloween trick, folks. Near the end of the summer, there were rumblings that the PolSilver Super Iridium blade were being discontinued. I checked with my sources that deal with them in huge quantities at the time and it was debunked. However, a recent notification (the second of such) - reared its ugly head once again. Again, I checked with one of my suppliers and unfortunately... This time it's true. I've reached out to another for comment. My favorite blade, the #PolSilver, will be no more. Time to stock up - and stock up hard!
Here's one data point of their discontinuation:
We have been informed that production of the Polsilver Super Iridium DE blades ceased at the Saint Petersburg factory on 1st August 2016. The blades will gradually be phased out in the areas of Eastern Europe where they are currently distributed. We have taken steps to garner reasonable stocks and expect to be able to maintain supplies and prices on our website, at least in the short to medium term. In the long term, it is inevitable that stocks will eventually start to run out.
We do not deal directly with Procter and Gamble in Russia, only their official Eastern European distributors, so we can only guess as to the motives behind the decision. It is likely to be some sort of Corporate 'streamlining', in line with their general policy of gradually phasing out DE blades in lieu of more modern (read more profitable) alternatives.
We do also know that the Polsilvers will eventually be replaced by Gillette Platinum blades in these particular areas, so P and G obviously have no immediate plans to completely abandon distribution of DE blades in East Europe. The Gillette Platinums are very fine blades too, though somewhat more expensive, another possible reason for the change??
We do hope that this information is useful, though we should reiterate that we do not expect to run out of Polsilvers in the short term!
UPDATE:
I've heard from another source that production is, at the very least, "suspended." Whether or not they will return... Remains to be seen.
Here's one place to get them and here is another. You can also get them on Amazon from a large number of places.
UPDATE:
Here's another snippet of information from October 12, 2016:
Several years ago I became online friends with a student ; Yasha Tseliskovskaya and helped her return home to Beslan after that attack. Serendipity Yasha's BF and now husband was employed as an engineer at a certain razor blade factory. Polsilvers suffered profitability because of A. deliveries ' falling' off trucks and landing on EBAY or B.CHICOM fakes sold via Bulgarian EBAY sellers ( lovely country, rampant corruption). Polsiver production has been suspended to A. fullfill contract runs ( ie Bolzanos) and fill out medical forms for a few delivery drivers with broken legs. Hopefully, Polsilvers will reappear, possibly in yet another packaging to further confuse users as to what in the hell they have. Prudence calls for buying a few anyway. If not now, we will hopefully still be shaving in 10 years.
UPDATE:
It's happening... From one of the major sources also on October 12, 2016:
With great regret, we would like to inform you that the rumors about End of production of Polsilver Super Iridium is true. Our information is that they are not in production from mid September. To be able to keep those blades long enough in the market we will stop wholesales and prices will be gradually increased in time.