Bic (company)

Société BIC S.A.
Société Anonyme
Traded as Euronext: BB
Industry Consumer Goods
Founded October 25, 1945 (1945-10-25)
Clichy, France
Founder Marcel Bich
Édouard Buffard
Headquarters Clichy, France
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Bruno Bich, Chairman
Mario Guevara, CEO
Products Disposable lighters, razors, pens
Revenue Increase€1.5627 billion (2009)[1]
Increase€216.0 million (2009)[1]
Increase€151.7 million (2009)[1]
Total assets Increase€2.0291 billion (2009)[1]
Total equity Increase€1.3040 billion (2009)[1]
Number of employees
 Increase10,449 (2009)[1]
Website www.bicworld.com

Société BIC S.A., commonly referred to simply as BIC, is a corporation based in Clichy, France best known for making ballpoint pens.[2] It was founded in 1945 by Baron Marcel Bich and has become known for making disposable consumer products such as lighters, razors, mechanical pencils, and printed paper products.[3]

Products

Bic Cristal pen
A Bic cigarette lighter

In 1970, Gillette purchased S. T. Dupont Paris whose principal product was luxury cigarette lighters. During this time Dupont explored the possibilities of marketing a disposable lighter, developing an inexpensive disposable lighter called Cricket, which it introduced in the United States in 1972. Later that year Bic was test marketing a disposable lighter that could provide 3,000 lights before wearing out; Bic introduced this lighter in 1973.[4]

They, as well as the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen, are easily recognizable as a result of their importance in pop culture. As such, they are represented in the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The company competes in most markets against Faber-Castell, Global Gillette, Newell Rubbermaid, Pentel and Schwan-Stabilo.[5] The BIC pen, more specifically the BIC Cristal, was the company's first product.[6][7] BIC is also known for making disposable razors for both men and women.

Ownership

The company went public in 1958 with a reverse merger into the older Waterman Pen Company of Seymour, Connecticut, in the United States, and later sold off the older operation.[8] The Bich family owns about 40 percent of Bic stock and controls 55% of its voting power.

In June 2010, BIC sold its funeral products division to Prairie Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm.[9]

United States subsidiary

BIC's U.S. headquarters and manufacturing operations were moved to Milford, Connecticut in 1958 after the Waterman Pen Company acquisition resulted in the need for larger facilities. It remained alongside a road eventually renamed "Bic Drive" until a 2008 move to Shelton, Connecticut. A cigarette lighter factory remains on the Milford site.[10]

The company's U.S. subsidiary, BIC Corporation, accounts for more than half of the worldwide company's sales. Both Bruno Bich, son of company co-founder Marcel, who rose through the ranks in the U.S. organization to become Chairman Of The Board as of October 21, 2010, and Mario Guevara, the company's Chief Executive Officer as of the same date, worked in the American subsidiary for several years.[11]

Sponsorship

BIC sponsored a professional cycling team in the 1960s led by Tour de France winners Jacques Anquetil and Luis Ocaña.[12] The company began sponsoring the Tour again in 2011 as an "official supporter",[13] which they have continued to do to the present day.[14]

BIC also sponsored the Alain Prost–led Prost Grand Prix team in Formula One from 1997 to 2000.

The logo

The corporate logo comprises two parts; a rhomboid with curved corners, left and right sides angled upward and containing the letters "BiC" with "i" the only one in lower case, and the BIC Boy to its left. The rhomboid, which debuted in 1950 to coincide with the launch of the BIC Cristal, was originally red with white letters. The colors were eventually changed to orange (Pantone 1235C) with black letters and outline. Only the font of the letters remains unchanged.[15] The BIC Boy is described on the corporation's website as "a school boy, with a head in the shape of a ball, holding a pen behind his back."[16] The ball is the tungsten carbide one that was the key feature in BIC's new ballpoint pens in 1961. The schoolboy was designed by Raymond Savignac who also developed the product's advertising campaign which was intended to attract the attention of children. The BIC Boy was added to the left of the rhomboid one year later in 1962.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2009. Notes to the consolidated financial statements. Auditor's opinion. Pages 34, 50, 52–53." (PDF). bicworld.com.
  2. ↑ "Legal Notice." Bic. Retrieved on 7 February 2011. "Head office : 14, rue Jeanne d’Asnières 92611 Clichy cedex, France."
  3. ↑ "Bic Graphic Website". BIC Graphic Company. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  4. ↑ "History of BIC Corporation – FundingUniverse". fundinguniverse.com.
  5. ↑ "Releases". bicworld.com.
  6. ↑ "BIC Corporation - Company History". Fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  7. ↑ "History". Bicworld.com. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  8. ↑ "Corporations: Mightier than the Pencil". TIME. 1967-03-17. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  9. ↑ "SmartMoney News". SmartMoney.com. 2002-10-03. Archived from the original on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  10. ↑ Web page titled "Milford Chamber Through the Years, 1954-2004", at the Milford Chamber of Commerce website, retrieved October 21, 2010; Dolan, Ryan, "BIC moves 350 to Shelton" Archived December 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine., Fairfield County Business Journal, March 3, 2008, retrieved October 27, 2010
  11. ↑ Web page titled "Directors biographies" at the Bic World website, retrieved October 21, 2010
  12. ↑ "Historic Overview Jacques Anquetil". www.CyclingRanking.com. 1934-01-08. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  13. ↑ "BIC Official Supporter of the Tour de France". bicworld.com. 2012-06-15. Retrieved 2014-08-19.
  14. ↑ "Bic: official supplier of le Tour de France". Facebook. 2012-07-04. Retrieved 2014-08-19.
  15. 1 2 BIC Logo History – History of All Logos.
  16. ↑ FAQ – BIC corporate website.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to BIC.


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