About Pilot
Company profile
For 90 years, PILOT has been synonymous with the provision of new writing solutions.
By listening to our customers, our research has enabled us to create new standards in terms of comfort, through the launch of liquid ink rollerballs, gel ink and more recently FriXion, the thermosensitive ink rollerball, celebrated by young people all over the world.
Your custom has recently taken us to number 2 in the world, and we thank you for this. Today, we are committed to meeting the major challenges of this new millennium such as protecting the environment and we continue to innovate to improve the quality and comfort of our products even further.
A European company
Since 1st January 1997, the PILOT CORPORATION OF EUROPE head office has been established in Haute-Savoie, in the Annecy region, at the heart of the European market. The European production centre and the French subsidiary are now both located on this site.
PILOT CORPORATION OF EUROPE aims to support its 7 subsidiaries and 20 European distributors in terms of marketing and logistics thus making it possible for us to cover 31 countries in Europe.
The Annecy manufacturing site extends over 10,000 m² and provides 60% of the supply for the group's European subsidiaries. This factory currently has 7 injection moulding machines and 6 sophisticated assembly lines and manufactures almost 40 million pens per year.
State of the art technology
Since its creation in 1918 to modern times PILOT has continually innovated and pushed the boundaries of the technology applied to writing instruments. Today PILOT is one of the only manufacturers in the world able to perform all the stages necessary in developing a writing instrument. This is due to a particularly successful research and development service, an integrated design department, a powerful manufacturing facility and a sales network spread throughout all the continents.
This production integration strategy has led PILOT to set up manufacturing facilities all over the world. Each one of them specialises entirely in a product range in order to optimise its technological expertise.
JAPANESE FACTORIES
ISESAKI
This plant integrates precision machining and mass production of ball point pens, water based ink ball point pens and pencil leads.
PILOT INK CO.
Expertise in the chemical technology of inks. Liquid ink and the thermosensitive ink used in the FriXion were developed here.
HIRATSUKA
Product development to manufacturing of our fountain pens, mechanical pencils, printer related products, precision devices and jewellery are integrated at this plant.
FRENCH FACTORY
ANNECY :
This factory is specialized in the manufacturing of the european flagships products : Fineliner, V5, V7, G1, G2, G2 Pixie, G-2 Lumini, Alphagel et B2P.
Key figures
PILOT CORPORATION WORLD HEADQUARTERS
- Location: Tokyo - Japan
- N°2 worldwide in writing instruments
- 2008 consolidated sales: 80,077 Billion Yens
- Operating in 5 continents
- 1253 employees in Japan / 2400 employees worldwide
- Number of countries covered: more than 100
See the Business Reports
PILOT CORPORATION OF EUROPE
- Location: Annecy – France
- 2008 consolidated sales: 165 Million €
- Employees: 185 in France / 268 in Europe
- Number of countries covered: 32
- A European factory (more than 10 000 m²) located in France (Annecy).
- 44 million pens were manufactured in 2008 in the European factory.
