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Inventories
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2018
Inventory Disclosure [Abstract]  
Inventories

5.Inventories

Inventories consist of the following:

 

 

September 30,

 

 

December 31,

 

 

2018

 

 

2017

 

Raw materials and supplies

$

85.7

 

 

$

85.6

 

Work in process

 

33.2

 

 

 

30.8

 

Finished goods

 

271.7

 

 

 

214.3

 

Total

$

390.6

 

 

$

330.7

 

 

On April 1, 2018, the Company changed its method of accounting for inventories from last-in-first-out (“LIFO”) to first-in-first-out (“FIFO”) for the approximately 17% of consolidated inventory not previously valued using FIFO. Substantially all of the Company’s Specialty Products Division segment inventory as well as domestic inventory sold primarily under the ARM & HAMMER trademark in the Consumer Domestic segment was previously determined using LIFO. After this change, all the Company’s inventory will be determined by the FIFO method.  The Company believes this change is preferable as the predominant method to value inventory has been FIFO, which will provide a uniform costing method across all inventory. Prior financial statements have not been retroactively adjusted due to immateriality. The cumulative effect of the change in accounting principle of approximately $4.0 pre-tax was recorded as a decrease to cost of goods sold for the quarter ending June 30, 2018.