Gillette To Reveal Plans for Future on June 6

James Kilts, recently appointed chairman of consumer products maker Gillette Co., will on June 6 give his first detailed assessment of the struggling company and where he hopes to take it, a spokesman said on Thursday.

He will offer his views on the maker of Mach3 razors, Braun coffee makers and Oral-B toothbrushes at a conference in New York with financial analysts and journalists, said Gillette spokesman Eric Kraus.

“He has specifically said that he will at that time discuss the issues impacting the company and where the company is headed,” Mr. Kraus said. Mr. Kraus declined to confirm that Mr. Kilts would outline a restructuring plan or other overhaul at the June 6 meeting.

Mr. Kilts, meeting with shareholders for the first time, said on Thursday he would not sell Gillette and vowed to reverse a string of disappointments.

“I did not come to this company to sell the company or to see it sold,” Mr. Kilts told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting.

Mr. Kilts, named to his new job in January, took over the venerable company that has fumbled the management of its Duracell battery brand and repeatedly disappointed investors in recent years with poor earnings.

Mr. Kilts told shareholders at the meeting that Gillette could rebound by building on its core of “category-defining” brands.

Hit with questions from individual shareholders on an array of issues including executive pay, share performance and the company’s outlook, he repeatedly promised to make the company perform better with strong management, cost controls and improved business practices. He also promised to hold managers accountable.

“I am committed to paying for performance,” he said. Ahead of the June 6 meeting, Kilts declined to offer specific details about how he would revive the company’s fortunes.

“We will be making the changes needed so that our company can resume the impressive growth in shareholder value that was Gillette’s hallmark just a few years ago,” he said in remarks to the meeting.

Gillette’s strategy has been to sell everyday household products at premium prices and earn big profits because consumers believe its brands are better than rival products. But problems at Duracell, for example, have punished Gillette and the first quarter produced another chastisement. Profits fell 29 percent as high inventories of razors and falling sales of Duracell batteries hurt results.