5.	Special Charges

The Company’s North America Technology Products Group (“NATG”) segment incurred special charges of approximately $4.6 million in the first quarter of 2015 relating to the previously announced exit from the retail store business in order to accelerate its focus on its business to business (“B2B”) operations, as well as, asset impairments and professional costs. This exit plan includes the closing of substantially all of its retail stores, closing a distribution center, and implementing a general workforce reduction to align available resources with a B2B focus as well as transitioning retail customers to online consumer sales. Charges related to this action included approximately $2.0 million in workforce reductions and $0.7 million in consulting expenses. NATG also incurred asset impairment charges of $0.3 million.

Additionally NATG incurred $1.6 million of professional costs related to the investigation, settlement, prosecution, and restitution proceedings related to the Fiorentinos; and professional costs related to the investigation being conducted at the request of the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

The balance of the workforce reductions from the European restructuring, disclosed in previous filings, and the NATG restructuring plan are included in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet within accrued expenses.

The following table details the associated liabilities related to the Technology Products segments special charges (in millions):

	EMEA - Workforce reductions and Personnel Costs			NATG - Workforce reductions		Total
Balance January 1, 2015	$	4.7		$	-	$	4.7
Charged to expense		-			2.0		2.0
Paid or otherwise settled		(2.3	)		-		(2.3	)
Balance March 31, 2015	$	2.4		$	2.0	$	4.4

The Company conducted an evaluation of its long-lived assets in its Germany operations and as a result of negative cash flows in 2015 and a forecast for continued cash use, concluded that those assets were impaired. As a result, the Company recorded an impairment charge of approximately $0.3 million, pre-tax, in the first quarter of 2015.

Industrial incurred special charges of approximately $0.4 million in severance costs associated with the integration of P.E.G. completed in first quarter of 2015. This severance cost is included in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet within accrued expenses and will be settled within the year.