from Bíró to Bic, the story of a world icon | EUROtoday

Having fled to Argentina to flee the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis, in 1943 the Bíró brothers filed a brand new patent. The following 12 months, the British authorities realized the potential of this invention and bought the license to provide ballpoint pens within the United Kingdom. 30 thousand examples had been manufactured, utilized in aeronautics by pilots’ navigators, for the reason that ballpoint pen was far more dependable than the fountain pen at excessive altitudes.

In 1945 distribution started in Argentina underneath the identify “birome”, a time period by which the ballpoint pen continues to be identified within the nation right this moment. The similar 12 months, American entrepreneur Milton Reynolds found this product throughout a visit to Buenos Aires and launched his model of the ballpoint pen to the North American market, with the presentation in New York on October 29.

Evolution and turnover

At the time the pen was not very profitable as a result of very excessive manufacturing prices, which translated right into a prohibitive retail worth: the mannequin introduced in New York value $12.50, equal to greater than $200 right this moment.

For this purpose, Bíró assigned the patent to the French-born Italian entrepreneur Marcel Bich. It was he who created a sensible and economical product, utilizing cheaper supplies and lowering prices by 90%.

In 1950, the “Bic Cristal” was launched, an iconic mannequin of the corporate based by Bich, which instantly loved world diffusion, reaching 100 billion models bought in 2005. Today Bic is the world’s second largest producer of writing devices with a market share of 9%, and in 2024 gross sales of the stationery division grew by 0.7%, reaching 814 million euros.