From lighters to pencils, the Bic Corporation has been producing the pens since the 1940’s.  The 2.6 billion dollar conglomerate has its roots in Chicly, France. The founder, Marcel Bich, left his job as a manager of an ink company and set up his own business on the outskirts of Paris assembling fountain pens. Then the business expanded to making the plastic cartridges that held the ink in fountain pens before creating his own line of pens. His simple, cheap, and reliable design netted his corporation over 5 million dollars in revenue. From there the brand has become ubiquitous in modern life, be it their razors, lighters, pens, pencils, and markers.