EXHIBIT 99.1
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NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC. SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
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The Company has made statements in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2002 and the documents incorporated by
reference therein that constitute forward-looking statements, as
defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. The statements
relate to, and other forward-looking statements that may be made by
the Company may relate to, information or assumptions about sales,
income, earnings per share, return on equity, return on invested
capital, capital expenditures, working capital, dividends, capital
structure, free cash flow, debt to capitalization ratios, interest
rates, internal growth rates, impact of changes in accounting
standards, pending legal proceedings and claims (including
environmental matters), future economic performance, operating income
improvements, synergies, management's plans, goals and objectives for
future operations and growth. These statements generally are
accompanied by words such as "intend," "anticipate," "believe,"
"estimate," "project," "target," "expect," "should" or similar
statements. You should understand that forward-looking statements are
not guarantees because there are inherent difficulties in predicting
future results. Actual results could differ materially from those
expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. The factors
that are discussed below, as well as the matters that are set forth
generally in the 2002 Form 10-K and the documents incorporated by
reference therein could cause actual results to differ. Some of these
factors are described as criteria for success. Our failure to
achieve, or limited success in achieving, these objectives could
result in actual results differing materially from those expressed or
implied in the forward-looking statements. In addition, there can be
no assurance that we have correctly identified and assessed all of the
factors affecting the Company or that the publicly available and other
information we receive with respect to these factors is complete or
correct.
Retail Economy
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Our business depends on the strength of the retail economies in
various parts of the world, primarily in North America and to a lesser
extent Europe, Central and South America and Asia.
These retail economies are affected primarily by such factors as
consumer demand and the condition of the consumer products retail
industry, which, in turn, are affected by general economic conditions
and events such as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In
recent years, the consumer products retail industry in the U.S. and,
increasingly, elsewhere has been characterized by intense competition
and consolidation among both product suppliers and retailers. Because
such competition, particularly in weak retail economies, can cause
retailers to struggle or fail, the Company must continuously monitor,
and adapt to changes in, the creditworthiness of its customers.
Nature of the Marketplace
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We compete with numerous other manufacturers and distributors of
consumer products, many of which are large and well established. Our
principal customers are large mass merchandisers, such as discount
stores, home centers, warehouse clubs and office superstores. The
rapid growth of these large mass merchandisers, together with changes
in consumer shopping patterns, have contributed to the formation of
dominant multi-category retailers, many of which have strong
bargaining power with suppliers. This environment significantly
limits our ability to recover cost increases through selling price
increases. Other trends among retailers are to foster high levels of
competition among suppliers, to demand that manufacturers supply
innovative new products and to require suppliers to maintain or reduce
product prices and deliver products with shorter lead times. Another
trend is for retailers to import products directly from foreign
sources.
The combination of these market influences has created an intensely
competitive environment in which our principal customers continuously
evaluate which product suppliers to use, resulting in pricing
pressures and the need for strong end-user brands, the continuing
introduction of innovative new products and constant improvements in
customer service.
New Product Development
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Our long-term success in this competitive retail environment depends
on our consistent ability to develop innovative new products that
create consumer demand for our products. Although many of our
businesses have had notable success in developing new products, we
need to improve our new product development capability. There are
numerous uncertainties inherent in successfully developing and
introducing innovative new products on a consistent basis.
Marketing
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Our competitive success also depends increasingly on our ability to
develop, maintain and strengthen our end-user brands so that our
retailer customers will need our products to meet consumer demand.
Our success also requires increased focus on serving our largest
customers through key account management efforts. We will need to
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continue to devote substantial marketing resources to achieving these
objectives.
Productivity and Streamlining
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Our success also depends on our ability to improve productivity and
streamline operations to control and reduce costs. We need to do this
while maintaining consistently high customer service levels and making
substantial investments in new product development and in marketing
our end-user brands. Our objective is to become our retailer
customers' best-cost provider and global supplier of choice. To do
this, we will need continuously to improve our manufacturing
efficiencies and develop sources of supply on a worldwide basis.
Acquisitions and Integration
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The acquisition of companies that sell name brand, staple consumer
product lines to volume purchasers has historically been one of the
foundations of our growth strategy. Over time, our ability to
continue to make sufficient strategic acquisitions at reasonable
prices and to integrate the acquired businesses successfully,
obtaining anticipated cost savings and operating income improvements
within a reasonable period of time, will be important factors in our
future growth.
Foreign Operations
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Foreign operations, especially in Europe (which is a focus of our
international growth) but also in Asia, Central and South America and
Canada, are increasingly important to our business. Foreign
operations can be affected by factors such as currency devaluation,
other currency fluctuations and the Euro currency conversion, tariffs,
nationalization, exchange controls, interest rates, limitations on
foreign investment in local business and other political, economic and
regulatory risks and difficulties.
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