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MAnAUS SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE BIC AMAzôNIA PLANT

Bic GrOuP, A PiOnEEr in lAtin AMEricA Getting to Manaus is always an adventure. The city is located in the middle of the Amazon forest, nearly 2,500 km (or 1,500 miles) from Brazil’s other major cities. You can reach it by boat or by airplane, just as you could back in 1956, when BIC first came to Brazil. In June of that year, Marcel Bich set foot in the country like a true pioneer. Four years later, construction of the first plant in São paulo was completed and the first delivery of BIC® Cristal® pens quickly won over Brazilians. BIC increased its production, developed its distribution network and began investing in advertising campaigns. The Group’s expansion across Brazil had begun. While keeping its plant in São paulo to produce Cristal® ballpoint pens, in 1973 BIC decided to set up in the free trade zone* in Manaus by acquiring Tecnocério, a lighter flint manufacturer, to start lighter production.

Bic AMAZÔniA PrOviDEs PrODucts tO All OF lAtin AMEricA development started in the region around Manaus in the late 1960s. In 1973, the Group launched production of the BIC® Maxi lighter. Two years later, Tecnocério was moved to the current site and the plant has grown constantly since then, now covering more than 40,000 sq.m. In 2001, Tecnocério was renamed BIC Amazônia and just one year later it began manufacturing all of BIC’s production in Brazil (from stationery items to lighters and shavers). It now supplies all of Latin America as well as other markets.

* Nearly 1000 national and international companies work in the Manaus free-trade zone.

The BIC plant is a reference within the Manaus Industrial Center: reliability, quality, respect for the environment and for people

In 1961, the BIC® Cristal® pen was manufactured in São Paulo on machines designed and build in France

Plant size: l Land 91,000 sq.m. l Factory 43,000 sq.m.

20 billion products manufactured since 1973

FIGUres For bIC aMaZÔNIa

98% of the production is for the Latin

American market

5,000 people make their living directly and indirectly from the plant’s activity

cErtiFicAtiOns isO 9001 / isO 14001 /

OHsAs 18001 / sA 8000

580 collaborateurs3

categories of products manufactured

650 employees

MeN 66% woMeN 34%

1 billion products manufactured every year

More than

470 M peNs 150 M peNCIls

210 M lIGhters

325 M shavers

1956 BIC arrives in Brazil

1961 First factory in são paulo begins production

1973 lighter manufacturing begins in Manaus

2002 Manufacturing for all products centralized in Manaus