Randi: Rubbermaid is out of business.

[davidwparker]

on edit: checking more into this. google is showing Rubbermaid almost went bankrupt due to Walmart. The story is about a year old. The link won't post correctly. It basically said what Randi just said.

[AlCzervik]

1. wow really? I remember the problem they had with Wal-mart some years back.

[davidwparker]

5. that's what Randi was saying. Rubbermaid had cut all the costs they

could, but Walmart said it wasn't enough. Walmart dropped them.

[AlCzervik]

6. Wal-mart vendors-either do it their way no matter what or cya.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Context? n/t

[mondo joe]

3. Rubbermmaid? MY RUBBERMAID?

Please tell me that's political code for something, rather than actual Rubbermaid.

[davidwparker]

8. Walmart dropped them. I'm trying to figure out how I can replay

Randi live, like I can when I podcast.

Anybody else hear it? I'm in shock myself.

There is a factory that will be shutdown here and China is buying the stuff that makes the plastic that is used for Rubbermaid.

[Connie_Corleone]

4. Can you add some info?

Never mind. Found the answer in another thread.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. She's mistaken

http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_1460900.html

[TheLeftyMom]

9. Gotta be wrong

Rubbermaid just held a huge recruitment effort in a small town south of Wichita, Kansas. They are hiring ... I want to say it was 600 people...

Oops, Randi!

[Graybeard]

10. Wal-Mart is destroying America...

...this is just one more example of their contempt for anything other than more profits, more profits, more profits.

[Nutmegger]

11. They're not really "out of business" per se

They were bought over by Nowell, a competitor, in 1999.

And Rubbermaid has had issues with Wal-Mart. For more, I suggest you see "Is Wal-Mart Good For America" by Frontline.

[davidwparker]

12. I saw that when I was googling after the post. I edited the original

to say it appears to be old news.

[jedr]

13. My middle son works for Rubber maid Commercial;

Has had two promotions in the last year and a nice bonus.....is at Disney right now on a conference. I doubt that they took them there to tell them that they are out of a job.

[MonkeyFunk]

14. fear not

Randi was mistaken.

Your son's job is safe.

[MazeRat7]

15. There is something seriously wrong with this as presented....

RubberMaid(R) is but one registered trademark of NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC COM (NWL: NYSE) They also have the following products:

Sharpie(R), Paper Mate(R), DYMO(R), EXPO(R), Waterman(R), Parker(R), RolodeX(R), IRWIN(R), LENOX(R), BernzOmatic(R), Rubbermaid(R), Graco(R), Calphalon(R) and Goody(R).

To say a "trademark" almost went bankrupt is kind of silly.

NWL is trading at 21x earnings and reached a 52wk high on 1/18/07 of $30.65. They closed today at $30.29. Their low looking back 10 years is around $18+ in late 2000. At least in the past 10 years, I see no indication of serious financial trouble.

However, I don't know the entire history of this company. Its possible "RubberMaid" used to be a separate company from Newell sometime beyond 10 years ago. If that were the case and they were in trouble, perhaps Newell bought them and captured the rights to the trademark. Certainly that would explain the name "Newell-Rubbermaid".

That being said, if Newell "acquired" the trademark via a LBO/M&A, then the question is why was the initial company in trouble? Certainly pricing pressure from competition like Walmart would be a factor, but that alone is not enough to explain the sale. What else was wrong? Their Balance sheet? Mgmt? Marketing? Operational costs? Debt? etc....

MZr7

[VOX]

16. Newell acquired Rubbermaid in 1999; now, Newell-Rubbermaid has been "restructuring"...

Bear in mind what follows is at least a few months old:

Per Hoover's Online (can't link, info from online database), reorganization plans, referred to as Project Acceleration, reaches worldwide and includes cutting some 5,000 employees from its workforce of 31,000 and shuttering a third of its 80 factories. Most recently, Newell Rubbermaid agreed to sell portions of its Home Decor Europe business to window-coverings giant Hunter Douglas...Wal-Mart accounts for about 15% of Newell Rubbermaid's sales... To add depth to its office products portfolio, which generates about a quarter of Newell Rubbermaid's revenue, the company acquired the DYMO brand from Esselte in late 2005 for $730 million...
In 2004 Newell Rubbermaid closed its flagship Home Organization Products Plant (site of manufacturing since the 1920s) in an effort to reorganize product lines and focus on higher-margin goods. Closure of the Wooster, Ohio, facility resulted in the loss of about 850 manufacturing and distribution jobs and the relocation of about 400 executive positions...
- - - - -

[ldf]

17. if I remember the PBS walmart documentary

Rubbermaid was its own company.

they went to the mecca of walmart, some town in middle america, was put through the "hazing" by walmart, met their terms, and was accepted into walmart.

walmart became the largest seller of rubbermaid goods. walmart became their bread and butter.

walmart wanted rubbermain products for less. rubbermaid said no.

walmart dropped them from every walmart store on the planet.

they had pretty much put all their eggs in the walmart basket, and walmart felt that they could call the shots. rubbermaid was trying to maintain its independence.

nowell coming in was, essentially, a hostile take over.

now they own rubbermaid, and is dictated to by walmart.

rubbermaid, as it was known to millions of americans, no longer exists.

thank you walmart.

there was also a big segment of the show about how walmart is now incredibly HUGE in china, to the point where they may be able to start calling the shots there.

after all, lots more chinese people to buy those chinese goods. walmart could crash and burn in the us, and still be a corporate powerhouse, just due to the china market.

american work values are useless, worthless, and actively hated by walmart.

again, thank you walmart.

edit for spelling, and to add that, essentially, randi was right. the rubbermaid we grew up knowing, no longer exists.

[LizW]

20. WalMart did the same to Vlasic pickles

There was a story about it a couple of years ago. WalMart made demands and Vlasic had to sink all their production capacity into the kind of pickles Walmart wanted and sell them at a razor thin profit margin. Then Walmart cut the price and demanded Vlasic sell them the pickles cheaper. They couldn't do it and went under, as I recall.

[Egalitariat]

18. Newell Rubbermaid has a market cap of roughly $8.4B with a B.

They have CURRENT assets of roughly $2.4B and TOTAL liabilities of $4.8B. That doesn't read like a recipe for bankruptcy to me.

[Fierce]

19. All I care is that when it says Rubbermaid,

nine times out of ten it also says "Made in USA". Good enough for me, thanks.