Information On Business Segments

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Information on Business Segments

Information on Business Segments

In conjunction with the Merger during the second quarter of 2012, we realigned our Americas and International segments. The pre-acquisition Latin America business has been moved into the International segment along with Mead C&OP's Brazilian operations. Our Computer Products Group was unaffected by the realignment or the Merger.

The Company’s three business segments are described below.

ACCO Brands North America and ACCO Brands International

Our office, school and calendar product lines use name brands such as: AT-A-GLANCE^®, Day-Timer^®, Five Star^®, GBC^®, Hilroy^®, Marbig, Mead^®, NOBO, Quartet^®, Rexel, Swingline^®, Tilibra, Wilson Jones^® and many others. Products and brands are not confined to one channel or product category and are sold based on end-user preference in each geographic location. We manufacture approximately 50% of our products, and specify and source approximately 50% of our products, mainly from Asia. The majority of our office products, such as stapling, binding and laminating equipment and related consumable supplies, shredders and whiteboards, are used by businesses. Most of these end-users purchase their products from our customers, which include commercial contract stationers, mass merchandisers, retail superstores, wholesalers, resellers, mail order and internet catalogs, club stores and dealers. We also supply some of our products directly to large commercial and industrial end-users. For all of our products, historically, we have targeted the premium end of the product categories in which we compete. However, we also supply private label products for our customers and provide machine maintenance and certain repair services. Our school products include notebooks, folders, decorative calendars, and stationery products. We distribute our school products primarily through traditional and online retail mass market, grocery, drug and office superstore channels. Our calendar products are sold throughout all channels where we sell office or school products, and we also sell calendar products direct to consumers.

The customer base to which we sell our products is mainly made up of large global and regional resellers of our products. Mass and retail channels mainly sell to individual consumers but also to small businesses. Office superstores mainly sell to commercial customers but also to individual consumers at their retail stores. As a result, there is no clear correlation between product, consumer or distribution channel. We also sell to commercial contract stationers, wholesalers, distributors, mail order and internet catalogs, and independent dealers. Over half of our product sales by our customers are to business end-users, who generally seek premium products that have added value or ease-of-use features and a reputation for reliability, performance and professional appearance. Some of our document finishing products are sold directly to high-volume end-users and commercial reprographic centers.

Computer Products Group

The Computer Products Group designs, distributes, markets and sells accessories for laptop and desktop computers and tablets and smart phones. These accessories primarily include security products,tabletcovers and keypads, smart phone accessories, power adapters, input devices such as mice, laptop computer carrying cases, hubs, docking stations and ergonomic devices. The Computer Products Group sells mostly under the Kensington^®, Microsaver^® and ClickSafe^® brand names, with the majority of its revenue coming from the U.S. and Western Europe.

Our computer products are manufactured by third-party suppliers, principally in Asia, and are stored in and distributed from our regional facilities. Our computer products are sold primarily to consumer electronics retailers, information technology value-added resellers, original equipment manufacturers and office products retailers.

Financial information by reportable segment is set forth below.

Net sales by business segment are as follows:

	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
(in millions of dollars)	2013		2012		2013		2012
ACCO Brands North America	$	295.9	$	321.4	$	771.8	$	737.9
ACCO Brands International	136.0		139.4		378.3		363.9
Computer Products Group	37.3		40.4		111.3		127.0
Net sales	$	469.2	$	501.2	$	1,261.4	$	1,228.8

Operating income (loss) by business segment is as follows ^(a):

	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
(in millions of dollars)	2013			2012			2013			2012
ACCO Brands North America	$	36.1		$	40.0		$	61.6		$	50.1
ACCO Brands International	17.8			14.7			32.3			31.9
Computer Products Group	3.4			7.7			9.1			25.2
Segment operating income	57.3			62.4			103.0			107.2
Corporate	(7.0		)	(6.0		)	(24.0		)	(35.2		)
Operating income	50.3			56.4			79.0			72.0
Interest expense, net	12.5			18.1			41.7			70.0
Equity in earnings of joint ventures	(3.3		)	(3.6		)	(5.9		)	(6.3		)
Other expense, net	0.1			0.3			9.6			61.4
Income (loss) from continuing operations before income tax	$	41.0		$	41.6		$	33.6		$	(53.1	)

(a) Operating income as presented in the segment table above is defined as i) net sales; ii) less cost of products sold; iii) less advertising, selling, general and administrative expenses; iv) less amortization of intangibles; and v) less restructuring charges.