Europe which has been hit very hard by the crisis. In the United States, after a slightly positive first quarter, our results were affected by the implementation of a new ERP system and the temporary glitches in customer service that the changeover caused. However, despite net sales that declined again in 2012, our IFO margin remained resilient. We are convinced that BIC APP can bounce back. We have the utmost confidence in our teams.

You re investing more in industrial investments and R&D. What s been done exactly?

Bruno Bich: In 2012, we significantly increased our industrial investments. Out of ¤125M invested, half went to increasing production capacity for existing products or for the launch of new products. For example - our new writing instrument plant in Tunisia, which will serve the Middle East and North African markets, will be completely operational, as announced, by the end of 2013 with a total investment of around ¤12M. In response to the success of our lighters we are increasing production capacity in all four of our plants. We are also expanding our shaver packaging operation in Mexico for North American markets. Regarding new products, we have developed and launched a new super smooth ink currently used for pens specific to the Asian market and we are launching in 2013 new moveable blade shavers including one for young men in Europe, another for women in the USA and a refillable four-blade shaver for men in Latin America.

We are also paving the way for future growth at BIC. In 2012, we increased our R&D budget by more than 36% to bring additional support to portable fuel cell device project. At the end of 2011, we bought Angstrom, a company specialized in portable fuel cell technology and have since successfully incorporated it into the business.

BRUNO BICH

WE FOSTER A CULTURE THAT IS OPEN TO CHANGE AND INNOVATION BUT ONE THING THAT WILL NEVER CHANGE IS OUR OBSESSION WITH PRODUCT QUALITY.

5