Going Bananas Over Bic

Brokers on the Paris Bourse had never seen anything like it. At least not over something so mundane as a disposable ballpoint pen. Last month, when Baron Marcel Bich sold a fraction of his pen company's 1,500,000 shares to the French public, investors went into a frenzy over Societe Bic. On opening day there were offers for 8,000,000 shares, but only 300,000 were made available; the price promptly jumped from $176 to $208. Helped by that rise, Baron Bich's holdings in the company that he controls increased to some $200 million.

Last week the company got a windfall when the French Ministry of Education ruled that the country's 4,000,000 children in elementary schools may use ballpoints instead of the traditional ink pens. It was about time. Bic has become a byword in the schools, offices and households of 96 countries. Nearly a billion and a half Bics are rolled out of 20 plants round the world every year according to company officials; they account for one-third of the world's ballpoint total, and production has been rising 10% annually. Baron Bich has done for ballpoints what Henry Ford did for cars: he has produced a cheap but serviceable model.

In 1945 Bich and his friend Edouard Buffard pooled their wealth--all of $1,000--and started making ballpoint refills in an old factory near Paris. Soon it occurred to Bich that a disposable pen that needed no refills would be more to the point. What his country needed, as Bich saw it, was a good 10-c- pen. Today the cheapest throwaway Bic sells for less than that in France--about 7-c-. In the U.S. the same pen retails for 19-c-, and it is the biggest seller on the market.

The U.S. provides Bic with about half of its $91 million yearly volume, much of which comes from the new Bic Banana, a fine-line carbon-tip marker that writes like a "felt" pen but is not as durable. Bic claims that in just over six months since it was brought out in the U.S., the 29-c- Banana has become the nation's No. 2 seller in the fine-line marker field, after Papermate's 49-c- Flair. In January or February next year, Bic will introduce packs of Bananas in combinations of colors; a five-pack will sell for 99-c- and a ten-pack for $1.98.

Riding the Wave. Marcel Bich is a stubborn, opinionated entrepreneur who inherited his title from his forebears in the predominantly French-speaking Val D'Aoste region of northern Italy. He abhors technocrats, computers and borrowing money. At 58, he attributes his business successes to his refusal to listen to almost anyone's advice but his own. Bich says that his philosophy has been to "concentrate on one product, used by everyone every day." Now, however, he is moving toward diversification. A disposable Bic cigarette lighter that gives 3,000 lights is being test-marketed in Sweden; if it proves out, Bich plans to sell it for less than 90-c-.

In the U.S., Bich is best known for his fiasco in the 1970 America's Cup Race; his sloop France, which he captained, got lost in the fog off Newport. He speaks in aquatic terms even when describing his company: "We just try to stick close to reality, like a surfer to his board. We don't lean forward or backward too far or too fast. We ride the wave at the right moment." Bic is now skimming along the crest of a 72% sales increase over the past five years. The baron hopes that with the disposable Bic lighter another big breaker may be in sight.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.