Basis Of Presentation And Significant Accounting Policies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Basis Of Presentation And Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Basis Of Presentation And Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (collectively with its subsidiaries, the “Company”) have been prepared pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and do not include all the information and footnotes required by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation of the financial position and the results of operations. It is recommended that these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements be read in conjunction with the financial statements, and the footnotes thereto, included in the Company’s latest Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Seasonal Variations

Sales of the Company’s products tend to be seasonal, with sales and operating income in the first quarter generally lower than any other quarter during the year, driven principally by reduced volume and the mix of products sold in the first quarter. Historically, the Company has earned more than 60% of its annual operating income during the second and third quarters of the year. The seasonality of the Company’s sales volume combined with the accounting for fixed costs, such as depreciation, amortization, rent, personnel costs and interest expense, impacts the Company’s results on a quarterly basis. In addition, the Company has historically generated more than 65% of its operating cash flow in the second half of the year due to seasonal variations in operating results, the timing of annual performance-based compensation payments, and credit terms provided to customers. Accordingly, the Company’s results for the three months ended March 31, 2012 may not necessarily be indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year ending December 31, 2012.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Changes to U.S. GAAP are established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) in the form of accounting standards updates (“ASUs”) to the FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification. The Company considers the applicability and impact of all ASUs.

In June 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-05, “Presentation of Comprehensive Income,” which requires an entity to present the total of comprehensive income, the components of net income, and the components of other comprehensive income either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income, or in two separate but consecutive statements. Additionally, ASU 2011-05 eliminates the option to present comprehensive income and its components as part of the statement of stockholders’ equity. Effective January 1, 2012, the Company adopted ASU 2011-05 as amended by ASU 2011-12, "Deferral of the Effective Date for Amendments to the Presentation of Reclassifications of Items Out of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income in Accounting Standards Update No. 2011-05." ASU 2011-12 defers the effective date of provisions in ASU 2011-05 that require presentation of reclassifications out of comprehensive income by income statement line item on the statement of comprehensive income, with all other requirements of ASU 2011-05 unaffected. The Company adopted ASU 2011-05 and ASU 2011-12 beginning January 1, 2012 and has elected to present items of net income and other comprehensive income in two consecutive statements.

In September 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-08 "Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Testing Goodwill for Impairment," which amends existing guidance by giving an entity the option to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If this is the case, a more detailed two-step goodwill impairment test will need to be performed which is used to identify potential goodwill impairments and to measure the amount of goodwill impairment losses to be recognized, if any. ASU 2011-08 is effective for annual and interim goodwill impairment tests performed by the Company after January 1, 2012. The Company did not perform goodwill impairment tests during the three months ended March 31, 2012 and does not expect ASU 2011-08 to have a material impact on the Company's future goodwill impairment tests.

Other recently issued ASUs were assessed and determined to be either not applicable or are expected to have a minimal impact on the Company’s consolidated financial position and results of operations.

Venezuelan Operations

The Company considers Venezuela a highly inflationary economy. Accounting standards require the functional currency of foreign operations operating in highly inflationary economies to be the same as the reporting currency of the Company. Accordingly, the functional currency of the Company’s Venezuelan operations is the U.S. Dollar. The Company’s Venezuelan operations had approximately $46.1 million of net monetary assets denominated in Bolivar Fuertes as of March 31, 2012 which are subject to changes in value based on changes in the Transaction System for Foreign Currency Denominated Securities (“SITME”) rate. Foreign currency exchange through the SITME is allowed within a specified band of 4.5 to 5.3 Bolivar Fuerte to U.S. Dollar, but most of the exchanges have been executed at the rate of 5.3 Bolivar Fuerte to U.S. Dollar. During the three months ended March 31, 2012, the Company’s Venezuelan operations generated less than 1% of consolidated net sales.

Income Taxes

At the end of each interim period, the Company makes its best estimate of the effective tax rate expected to be applicable for the full fiscal year. This estimate reflects, among other items, the Company's best estimate of operating results and foreign currency exchange rates. The Company's quarterly income tax rate may differ from its estimated annual effective tax rate because accounting standards require the Company to exclude the actual results of certain entities expected to generate a pretax loss when applying the estimated annual effective tax rate to the Company's consolidated pretax results in interim periods. In estimating the annual effective tax rate, the Company does not include the estimated impact of unusual and/or infrequent items, which may cause significant variations in the customary relationship between income tax expense and pretax income.

Reclassifications

Certain 2011 amounts have been reclassified to conform to the 2012 presentation.