June 7 (SeeNews) - French stationery supplies maker BIC said that it will open a new service centre in the Bulgarian capital Sofia as part of the second phase of its "BIC 2022 - Invent the future" long-term strategy.
The second phase envisages the consolidation of the transactional and administrative tasks of its finance, human resources, and customer services functions worldwide, through the launch of a service centre in Sofia, called Group BIC Services, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The plan is expected to create some 400 new jobs globally, while at the same time resulting in approximately 450 redundancies, primarily in transactional roles. The implementation of the second phase of the plan is expected to start by the end of 2019, BIC said.
About 200 of the new jobs will be in the new service centre in Bulgaria, French daily Le Monde reported on Thursday, citing news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
BIC, based in Clichy, France, produces stationery, lighters and shavers, which it sells in more than 160 countries worldwide. The company generated net sales revenue of 1.95 billion euro in 2018.
($ = 0.8879 euro)