Property, Plant and Equipment, Net

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, plant and equipment are stated at cost. Expenditures for maintenance and repairs are expensed as incurred. Depreciation expense is calculated principally on the straight-line basis. Useful lives determined by the Company are as follows: buildings and improvements (20 - 40 years) and machinery and equipment (3 - 15 years).

Property, plant and equipment, net, consisted of the following at December 31, (in millions):


	2020		2019
Land	$	86	$	86
Buildings and improvements	664		641
Machinery and equipment	2,314		2,151
	3,064		2,878
Less: Accumulated depreciation	(1,888)		(1,723)
	$	1,176	$	1,155

Depreciation expense for continuing operations was $200 million, $254 million and $183 million in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Depreciation expense for discontinued operations was nil in 2020 and 2019 and $19 million in 2018. Depreciation expense for assets held for sale was nil for 2020 and 2019 as the Company ceased depreciating property, plant, and equipment relating to businesses which satisfied the criteria to be classified as held for sale during the second quarter of 2018.

During the first quarter of 2020, the Company concluded that a triggering event had occurred for all of its reporting units as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pursuant to the authoritative accounting literature, the Company compared the sum of the undiscounted future cash flows attributable to the asset or group of assets (the lowest level for which identifiable cash flows are available) to their respective carrying amount. As a result of the impairment testing performed in connection with the triggering event, the Company recorded a non-cash fixed asset impairment charge of approximately $1 million during 2020, in the Home Solutions segment associated with its Yankee Candle retail store business. The impairment charge was calculated as the excess of carrying value over fair value of the asset group.

In 2018, as part of the ATP, the Company approved a plan to market for sale the Commercial Business. This business was classified as held for sale in the Company's historical Consolidated Balance Sheets. During 2019, the Company decided not to sell this business. As a result, the business no longer satisfied the requirements to be classified as held for sale in the Company's Consolidated Balance Sheet at December 31, 2019. Accordingly, the Consolidated Balance Sheet at December 31, 2018 was recast to reclassify the Commercial Business from held for sale to held and used. The Company measured the business at the lower of its (i) carrying amount before it was classified as held for sale, adjusted for depreciation and amortization expense that would have been recognized had the Commercial Business been continuously classified as held and used, or (ii) fair value at the date the decision not to sell was made. The Company recorded a charge of $50 million in 2019 relating to the amount of depreciation expense that would have been recorded in prior periods had the Commercial Business been continuously classified as held and used.

During 2018, the Company recorded $41 million of impairment charges on certain other assets, the majority of which relate to the Home Fragrance business in the Home Solutions segment.