Newell Rubbermaid to drop products, raise prices


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/15/08

Socked by higher commodity prices, particularly for resin used in its plastics, Newell Rubbermaid said Tuesday it will exit several different lines, raise prices on others by as much as 22 percent and cut an unspecified number of jobs.

It also lowered its full-year, per-share earnings forecast to between $1.40 and $1.60 from prior guidance of $1.80 to $1.90. The new guidance assumes the per-barrel price of oil stays around $140 in a best-case scenario. The worst case assumption: Oil hits $200 a barrel.

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"In recent weeks, input cost inflation has accelerated dramatically, especially in resin, which is the largest single component of our cost of goods," Mark Ketchum, Newell Rubbermaid's president and chief executive, said in a statement. "Unfortunately we don't see this situation reversing course. In categories where resin is a high percentage of cost of goods sold and the consumer's willingness to pay for innovation is low, the economics are no longer viable."

Like other companies, Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid — whose consumer brands include Sharpie pens, Rubbermaid trash bins and Goody health and beauty products — has sought to deal with rising costs for raw materials by cutting expenses and raising prices on some products.

Newell Rubbermaid has been particularly hit because it's a heavy user of plastics.

Investors signaled approval of the moves, sending shares up as high as 3 percent in trading Tuesday before finishing at $15.61 per share, a 1 percent gain.

Restructuring costs, including asset impairments, are expected to be between $80 million and $100 million. Between $25 million and $30 million of that will be set aside for employees who will be terminated. Newell Rubbermaid employs 22,500 worldwide, but spokesman David Doolittle said it's too early to say where the cuts will occur.

About 45 percent of the restructuring costs are expected to be cash charges and will occur in the next 12 months.

The company's cost-cutting initiative, Project Acceleration, is being expanded and now is expected to save between $175 million and $200 million a year by 2010, the company said.

In 2003, the company began using additives in some products to reduce the amount of plastic it uses. It redesigned some of its offerings such as its trash cans and storage containers to reduce plastic.

It also sold its Little Tykes toys and Curver housewares units and terminated unprofitable product lines.

Those efforts seemed to be paying off. In an interview last month, Ray Johnson, Newell Rubbermaid's president of global manufacturing and supply chain, said about 10 percent to 12 percent of a given product's cost is directly related to plastic, down from 25 percent five years ago.

Still, Newell Rubbermaid, which uses 700 million pounds of resin a year, has seen costs for that raw material go up 60 percent in the last year, said David Doolittle, a company spokesman.

It has been looking to find a recycling supplier large enough for its needs and boost the amount of recycled plastics it uses in its manufacturing. Currently, less than five percent of its resin intake comes from recycled plastic.

"It's been it's been hard to find a big enough supply to find recycled resin to put in our product," Doolittle said.

Tuesday's announcement means it will be exiting and cutting business lines that bring about $500 million a year to the company.

It didn't name specific items, but Doolittle said the strategy is to focus on high-margin, premium-priced goods and exit low-margin, basic products such as storage containers and chair mats.

The company also will implement a quarterly price adjustment program effective Jan. 1 in its plastics-intensive North American businesses. That quarterly adjustment will be based on raw material indexes and the actual cost of those raw materials, processing and transportation costs.

The company said the moves should add 5 cents to 10 cents per share to earnings.

How the efforts will play out is still somewhat an uncertainty.

"Although much of this is already in the stock (now at a multiyear low), we remain cautious given Newell Rubbermaid's exposure to certain economically sensitive categories, as well as the fact that this process could take a year to play out and entail some puts and takes," Joseph Altobello, an analyst who follows the company for Oppenheimer and Co. in New York, wrote in a research report. "However, we see little risk to the dividend at this time."

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