In the current economic context, what are BIC s strengths?
Bruno Bich: First of all, our teams. I would like to mention our R&D engineers who master the latest technologies in order to ensure constant improvements in the performance of our products as well as designing new, ultra high performing production machines. There are the production teams in every factory we have around the world, where they focus daily on improving quality and optimizing costs. I would also like to mention the sales and marketing teams because they are out there in the field and have an in-depth knowledge of their markets, finance and administration teams who provide the discipline, accuracy & analytics to support effective decision making. The skill, ingenuity, motivation, experience and multicultural diversity of our teams are the key to our success. Thanks to them, our products, quality and always at the right price, meet consumer expectations and provide them with the right products they use every day.
Our obsession with quality and the right price as well as being truly open to change and innovation are the strengths of our company.
What message would you like to give shareholders and employees about the future?
Bruno Bich: We have to keep in mind that the global economic environment remains volatile, with particularly difficult market conditions in Europe. In this context and in order to prepare the future for our Consumer business (stationery, lighters and shavers), we continue to support our brand and our key products along with investments and innovation with the launch of new products. Also, we place our trust in the new management that has been put in place to stabilize and increase BIC APP sales, proposing new products and new printing technology that offers a wide range of colors as well as numerous options for small runs of personalized products.
We are of course maintaining our solid balance sheet and a regular shareholder remuneration. After two good years, 2013 will be a year of transition but our net sales and profitability goals will be in keeping with our medium-term objectives. We are very proud of the commitment that our 9,000 employees show on a daily basis and we have the greatest trust in them. Thanks to them, BIC can continue to offer high-quality, useful, attractive and innovative products in an often difficult economic context. They all deserve our sincere gratitude.
We are now working with the CEA, the French government-funded technological research organization specialized in nuclear and alternative energy sources, for the development of a pilot line for micro-fuel cells. We expect to launch a product within the next four years. In France we also launched the BIC® Education solution for elementary schools.
What is your reaction to the European Union's failure to renew the anti-dumping duty on lighters?
Bruno Bich: First I want to remind everyone that the original goal of this duty, created in 1991, was not to protect the European lighter industry but to stop unfair competition from some Chinese flint lighters manufacturers. The European Commission renewed this tax three times, which I stress, in reality has practically never been paid because people have massively circumvented it for the past 20 years, which Brussels has again recently recognized. We will continue to defend our Group interests, our shareholders and our employees in Europe against two forms of undeniable unfair competition in particular: first, the non-respect of safety standards and the danger that it poses to consumers while penalizing the manufacturers who have made massive investments in order to respect those standards. Second, the imbalance between the custom duties which are 2.7% for lighters coming into the European market from China and 25% for lighters exported from Europe to China!
M 373.8 19.7% M 1,898.7
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NORMALIZED IFO MARGINNET SALES
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