BIC inaugurates shared services centre in Sofia, to hire 230 by end-2021

 French stationery supplies producer BIC inaugurated a new shared services centre in Bulgarian capital Sofia, in which it intends to hire 230 employees by the end of 2021, it said.
 BIC also plans to invest over 10.5 million euro ($12.4 million) in Bulgaria by the end of next year.

With the opening of the new centre BIC has established a new unit - BIC Services Sofia, to consolidate the French company's administrative tasks and activities in the field of finance, accounting, transactions, supply and other corporate functions across Europe, the company said.
BIC did not disclose the value of its investment in the new service centre.
Earlier this month, the Bulgarian economy ministry said that the investment in the project amounted to some 2.0 million levs ($1.2 million/1.0 million euro).
The shared services centre is part of BIC's global business transformation plan for 2020, aimed at increasing efficiency and creating a structure of sustainable growth maintenance.
"BIC Services Sofia will manage activities ranging from logistics to human resources, as well as financial processes, customer relations and supply to Societe Bic," Georgi Menev, executive director at BIC Services Sofia, said in the statement.
At present, the Sofia-based centre provides services to the markets of France, Italy, Germany, Benelux, Portugal and Spain. It plans to expand its operations towards Romania, Ukraine and Russia as well as a number of African countries where BIC is present.
BIC, based in Clichy, France, produces stationery, lighters and shavers, which it sells in more than 160 countries worldwide.