Inspired by wheelbarrow, BIC sells 100 billionth pen:
Its founder Baron Marcel Bich originally planned to make fountain pen parts when he bought a factory with his partner Edouard Buffard outside Paris at the end of World War II.But a chance encounter with a wheelbarrow changed all that, recalls his son Bruno Bich, who now runs the company.
‘My father told me that one day he was pushing a wheelbarrow when it dawned on him that the ball was a multi-faceted wheel and this was the best way to convey ink,’ he told Reuters.
‘So he put all his investment into the ballpoint. He was the first to use very precise production techniques,’ he added.
Ballpoint pens had been sold before the war for the then luxurious sum of $5 and were brought to Europe by American GI soldiers, Bich said. Only they leaked.
Looking for a catchy name for his new product, the baron shortened his own to BIC and snapped up patents including Laszlo Biro’s design for a non-disposable pen with a rotating ball.