BIC - 2020 Universal Registration Document

OUR ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND SOCIETAL RESPONSIBILITY

Our societal commitment

OUR SOCIETAL COMMITMENT 3.6.

In September 2015, the United Nations adopted a new Sustainable Development Program comprising 17 worldwide goals for combating poverty, inequality and injustice. These goals emphasize the crucial role of universal access to education and hygiene. The Group strives to meet these challenges through its local economic presence, with about four million points of sale offering BIC ® products worldwide, and through its global presence: BIC manufactures and distributes its products in 160 countries, supplying the most developed marketplaces as well as some of the most impoverished ones. Lastly, BIC seeks to support local communities through the development of philanthropic policies that favor involvement at both the Group and the individual levels.

3.6.1

MAKING OUR PRODUCTS AFFORDABLE TO ALL

3.6.2

THE GROUP’S COMMITMENT TOWARD LOCAL COMMUNITIES

3.6.2.1

Writing the Future, Together –

BIC Group is guided by a vision: “To offer simple, inventive and reliable choices for everyone, everywhere, every time”. For BIC Group, making products that everyone can afford means adapting them to markets in developing countries. The pens and shavers marketed by BIC in more than 160 countries promote access to education and personal care. BIC is thus contributing to social progress around the world. In 2020, 25% of the Group’s turnover came from these growth markets. BIC Group’s approach consists of adapting all possible parameters to make its products affordable: building close relations between its production units and their ● distribution markets. In 2019, BIC strengthened its position in Africa with the acquisition of a 100% share in Lucky Stationery Nigeria Ltd, Nigeria’s leading manufacturer of writing instruments. With this acquisition, BIC is bolstering its presence on the Tanzanian, Ethiopian and Ugandan markets; creating products for growth markets; ● adapting BIC ® products to the buying power of emerging ● countries; completely rethinking the packaging, in order to market ● products in packs of only one or two items; offering the best functionality at the best price, setting an ● optimal fair price for BIC ® products in collaboration with local retailers, in consideration of local consumption trends and selling price thresholds; developing innovative and appropriate distribution models, ● relying on local retailers : such as individual kiosks, micro-shops or service outlets near schools.

#5 Improving lives through education The UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 4 is “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” It underlines the two key challenges regarding education: access to education and equity in learning. The latest US (1) report shows that today: access remains a major problem: 258 million school-age ● children (6–17 years old) do not have access to primary or secondary education and recent projections show that without major changes, by 2030, one child in six will be outside the school system; the quality of the education provided is a critical issue: 55% of ● primary and lower secondary school children and adolescents do not acquire the minimum knowledge in reading and 60% in mathematics. Through its activities of designing, manufacturing and distributing writing instruments, BIC Group has long been involved in the promotion of education. Firmly convinced that education is crucial for the development of free will and independence, and to combat poverty, BIC has in particular been an active advocate of writing by hand, even before its importance in the structuring of children’s thought processes was proven. BIC has set the goal of improving lives through education and has codified this ambition in the following commitment: By 2025, BIC will improve learning conditions for 250 million children, globally. The Group acts through three channels: actions undertaken by the BIC Corporate Foundation; ● philanthropic actions (donations of products, funding and ● skills) undertaken by local entities for the benefit of their communities (detailed in section 3.6.2.2); actions to help improve learning conditions, including ● awareness of the benefits of writing by hand in the learning 3.6.2and memorization processes (detailed in section 3.6.2.3).

UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (1)

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• BIC GROUP - 2020 UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT •