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MWF Closing?

I'm not sure if they're the tallow pucks though. I remember looking at them a little while back, and it seemed like one of the stock photos listed tallow in the ingredients label, but the actual item description said somewhere it was tallow free.
I could be misremembering this though, will check.
They are not the tallow pucks. They are a 2024 reformulation.
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I suggested to Rod at Stirling once that he should dupe the MWF scent. But I think it’s easier to do that with perfumes? I don’t know. But it seems like an easy win for a small maker to pick this up now - in scent and spirit, at least.

Curious about the scent now. Someone in another thread described it as like Ivory soap, which was originally scented with natural lemongrass oil (I believe it because when I've found pure lemongrass soaps, they smell like old Ivory soap). Another thread asked someone from B&M about it and they suggested a lot of chemicals that would be in lemongrass oil.
 
Curious about the scent now. Someone in another thread described it as like Ivory soap, which was originally scented with natural lemongrass oil (I believe it because when I've found pure lemongrass soaps, they smell like old Ivory soap). Another thread asked someone from B&M about it and they suggested a lot of chemicals that would be in lemongrass oil.

Not really like Ivory, other than having a fairly mild and neutral scent. This is the description for the Kent version (same soap with different label).

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If I had to describe the scent, it would be something like freshly done laundry that had hung outdoors to dry.
 
I'm not sure if they're the tallow pucks though. I remember looking at them a little while back, and it seemed like one of the stock photos listed tallow in the ingredients label, but the actual item description said somewhere it was tallow free.
I could be misremembering this though, will check.
Unlikely that there will be tallow pucks left for sale by now.
 
Hi, Where did you find the above copy on MWF? Can't find anything on the web noting that they are closing outside of our posts and a Reddit post that is based on our thread here.

Do see that their website is down with nothing but a white screen.

Kind of surprising, given the broad specialty retailer distribution of the brand, especially the bath products, that someone didn't pick it up to take it forward.

Edit, P.S. Just found the post on a Facebook Wibsey Business and Community Group. Posted by a Sean Charlton who is a barber at a local Wibsey barber shop. Surprised Mitchell's didn't put some type of message on their website as others have done in similar situations.
 
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Looked at their U.K. government filings and it looks like they recently went through some changes in control. It was run by the Robinson family (John, James, William & Marylin). Initially (per late 90's and early 2000's filings) John owned 80% of the company (4/5 shares) and Marylin 20% (1/5 shares). From other documents it looks like John Robinson ran MWF from 1991 to 2021 when James and William (his sons??) became Directors and then in 2023 assumed ownership.

Later significant if now all ownership went to James and William in 2023 right before May of 2023 when an Adam Mackenzie is listed as owning between 50% and 75% of the company. Then in June of this year he shows up as no longer having control.

Evidence of a small family business that may have been sold and then liquidated when the original owners decided to retire.

We will miss the brand here, as many of us, including myself, enjoy using the shaving soap. The bath soap is also great, slickest soap I ever used.

This Adam Mackenzie: https://partnership.sjp.co.uk/partner/adammackenzie
 
I am sorry to see this business close, it is a small company near Bradford, once the centre of the UK wool trade but is now a struggling city.

The loss of any business to the city and especially its employees is difficult, the loss of a company that produces a good quality product, especially a shaving product, is a very real shame.
 
I wonder if the reformulation of the shaving soap had any impact on the viability of the business.

I suspect not - it does just sound like the end of a family dynasty and I suspect there's a whole host of additional factors:

  • Brexit impacting costs and supplier / distributor relationships
  • The EU tallow shortage
  • Rising energy costs / inflation
  • The fragmentation of the shaving soap market caused by the growth of artisan / small batch soap makers (probably the biggest factor)
  • If the business was barely profitable, the looming changes to the tax regime might be a factor in the decision to close the shop, although as a very small family business that apparently operated from a residential property, I can't think how they would be affected - it would depend on whether there were employees outside the family.

Still, I would love to know what happened to sales volumes after the formula change. I happen to think the second reformulation was superior to the tallow soap, but a lot of loyal customers in the shave community probably turned away from them and maybe it was the straw that broke the camel's back.
 
In the many years that I've been wet shaving, I never managed to use classic MWF (or Tabac for that matter) - is the reformulation worth grabbing a puck or two?

Without any hesitancy ... YES!

I'm another who considers their latest formulation to be superior to the tallow version and quite frankly did not stock up extra tallow refills when I could and I am quite glad that I didn't, given that. I will be buying a few more refills of the latest formulation.
 
Without any hesitancy ... YES!

I'm another who considers their latest formulation to be superior to the tallow version and quite frankly did not stock up extra tallow refills when I could and I am quite glad that I didn't, given that. I will be buying a few more refills of the latest formulation.

I already had a stock of tallow. When I used the latest formulation, I sold it. I was happy with the latest version.
 

luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
I'm saddened to see any small business with a following go down the tubes. Sign of the times.
As for me, it doesn't affect me at all. I purchased plenty of the tallow MWF and Kent pucks when they were available, as I had no intent to try the reformulated, or the reformulated reformulated versions. Ditto for Tabac.
 

garyg

B&B membership has its percs
Sad to see an icon pass away. I never could get it to lather, as already reported many times, but the scent and the aftershave feeling had me trying to make MWF work every once in a while. There's probably enough of the old formula left around here to carry me into me dotage at that rate ...
 
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