this is a fine company...

i have bought so many of their lighters in my life and probably quite a few of their pens. the pens are only o.k., but the lighters are a strong product.

PARIS (Reuters) - It started as an answer to leaky pens carried by American soldiers during World War Two, was perfected and made popular by an Italian-born baron and has written its way into history as the world's biggest-selling pen.

More than half a century after honing a cheap version of the ballpoint pen, Bic, the French firm which built an empire out of making things to be thrown away, said Thursday it had sold its 100 billionth -- 100,000,000,000th --- disposable ballpoint.

The group started small after the war and now has annual revenues of around 1.4 billion euros, including sales of razors and lighters. It reported the milestone along with first-half profits.

"The pens have been sold on average 57 times a second since 1950," BIC said.

Its founder Baron Marcel Bich originally planned to make fountain pen parts when he bought a factory with his partner Edouard Buffard outside Paris at the end of World War II.

But a chance encounter with a wheelbarrow changed all that, recalls his son Bruno Bich, who now runs the company.

"My father told me that one day he was pushing a wheelbarrow when it dawned on him that the ball was a multi-faceted wheel and this was the best way to convey ink," he told Reuters.