American shoppers still are hesitant to spend money on items they don't need, the president and CEO of consumer goods company Newell Rubbermaid said Friday.
"The categories that are more discretionary, they're certainly more cautious," President and CEO Michael Polk said of shoppers. Newell Rubbermaid, based in Sandy Springs, makes such products as Sharpie markers, Calphalon pots, Goody hair products and Graco car seats.
Polk said in the United States he expects 2012 to be similar to 2011. While consumers seem to be increasingly confident, he said, their behaviors have yet to change dramatically.
But, he said, other parts of the world -- namely, Western Europe -- are in worse shape, and market growth is slowing.
Still, Newell Rubbermaid is predicting sales growth between 2 percent and 3 percent in 2012. In 2011, core sales grew 1.8 percent; they were up 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter.
The company is seeing growth in the developing world, Polk said in a Newell Rubbermaid conference call, and tools -- including the Irwin brand -- were among its strongest sellers in the fourth quarter.
Newell Rubbermaid made $125.2 million in 2011, as compared with $292.8 million in 2010; it made $80.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 as compared with $75.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The 2011 earnings were hurt by costs related to a change in Newell Rubbermaid's business structure -- resulting in the elimination of 500 jobs in Atlanta and elsewhere -- and by a charge the company took earlier in the year to adjust its earnings expectations for lower birth rates, among other things.
In a research note, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Bill Chappell said the company's predictions for 2012 are a good sign for its business.
Newell Rubbermaid's stock was up nearly 8 percent, and closed at $18.82.
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