“Newell Rubbermaid” or the “Company” refers to Newell Rubbermaid Inc. alone or with its wholly owned subsidiaries, as the context requires. When this report uses the words “we” or “our,” it refers to the Company and its subsidiaries unless the context otherwise requires.
Website Access to Securities and Exchange Commission Reports
The Company’s Internet website can be found at www.newellrubbermaid.com. The Company makes available free of charge on or through its website its annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as soon as practicable after the Company files them with, or furnishes them to, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
GENERAL
Newell Rubbermaid is a global marketer of consumer and commercial products that touch the lives of people where they work, live and play. The Company’s products are marketed under a strong portfolio of brands, including Rubbermaid®, Graco®, Aprica®, Levolor®, Calphalon®, Goody®, Sharpie®, Paper Mate®, Dymo®, Parker®, Waterman®, Irwin®, Lenox® and Technical Concepts™. The Company’s multi-product offering consists of well-known name-brand consumer and commercial products in three business segments: Home & Family; Office Products; and Tools, Hardware & Commercial Products.
Newell Rubbermaid’s vision is to become a global company of Brands That Matter™ and great people, known for best-in-class results. The Company is committed to building consumer-meaningful brands through understanding the needs of consumers and using those insights to create innovative, highly differentiated product solutions that offer performance and value. Over the past five years, the Company has been focused on transforming its business model and operations to align with its long-term strategy. The Company has largely completed the transformation and has transitioned from a manufacturer of products to a marketer of Brands That Matter to consumers, improved the product portfolio by investing in brands and products that respond to innovation and product differentiation while reducing exposures to commoditized product categories, and expanded geographically with a growing global footprint. With the transformation largely complete, the Company’s strategy is to leverage the portfolio for faster growth, continue building Brands That Matter to drive demand, and fuel growth through margin expansion and scale synergies. The Company’s strategy is designed to achieve simultaneous net sales growth, gross margin expansion and increased earnings per share.
Refer to the forward-looking statements section of Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a discussion of the Company’s forward-looking statements included in this report.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
Leverage the Portfolio for Faster Growth
The Company’s strategy is to leverage its brand and product portfolio for faster growth by targeting further investment in higher growth businesses and categories to accelerate geographic and category expansion. In 2010, the Company completed Project Acceleration through which the Company substantially exited commoditized businesses and product lines that the Company deemed as not responsive to innovation and where input costs were a significant portion of the overall product cost. As a result, the Company’s current portfolio of brands and products generally are more responsive to innovation and product differentiation, have strong margin and growth potential, and participate in global categories.
Each of the Company’s global business units (“GBUs”) supports one or more of the Company’s key brands worldwide, with a focus on developing and marketing differentiated products designed to meet consumers’ needs. The GBU structure gives the Company’s key businesses the ability to leverage research and development, branding, marketing and innovation on a global basis. The Company is able to maximize the benefits of its targeted investments in geographic and category expansion because the GBU structure allows the GBUs to take advantage of favorable customer and channel dynamics, optimize valued intellectual property and realize synergies with the Company’s core product categories and competencies.
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