Keeping Our Eye
on the Prize

A story published on Newell Brands digital platforms recapping the webcast live Q1 2017 Global Meeting.

The Story
Growth. It’s a big deal at Newell Brands. In fact, growth is the engine that powers us and key focuses on innovation, e-commerce and international expansion are the fuel we need to keep that engine excelling in the fast lane. 

CEO Michael Polk lives and breathes growth – and during the Q1 2017 Global Meeting his passion for it could not have been any clearer.

Millions? How ‘bout billions?!
We touch the lives of hundreds of millions of consumers every day, but Mike’s vision doesn’t end there. With his eye on the prize, he confidently sees ability for Newell Brands to reach billions of consumers down the road. Zoom, zoom!

Newell for the win
Growing is winning – especially winning over the hearts of our consumers. But there is no “Tinder” for brands and consumers to match (but wouldn’t that be cool?!), so we focus on innovation as the best way to connect with our consumers. And we work on delighting them through the four F’s: function, form, fit and finish.

By way of the newly created Innovation Funnel Development plan, we are testing out brilliant concepts left and right (nearly 500 since Jan. 1). And through our progress in ideation and concept testing, we should expect to bring strong new innovations in 2018 and onwards, Mike said.

From bricks to clicks
It’s no secret we need to reach our customers where they shop, which is rapidly shifting towards e-commerce channels. But despite a difficult environment in the retail landscape, our e-commerce growth rates have been awesome, according to Mike. In fact, they are more than 10% of our global net sales. 

And those aren’t the only numbers that have increased. Today we have 250 employees dedicated to our e-commerce division – that’s up from only 24 employees in 2012 – and we plan to double that by the end of the year. Challenge accepted!

These brands were made for walking...
And that’s just what they’ll do! Literally! Our geographic footprint has treaded some major distance in the few short months of Q1 2017. We entered the China market by launching our Writing business (Sharpie and Paper Mate) and we re-launched the Reynolds Writing brand in India. 

We diversified our brand portfolio and international expansion by acquiring Sistema (strong in Australia, New Zealand, U.K. and parts of continental Europe) and WoodWick (the perfect candle brand to compliment Yankee Candle). 

But there are still many global opportunities we have yet to unlock, which Mike talked about during the Global Meeting. He said our focus on growing geographic presence will set up Newell Brands for even more wins in the future. And those wins will lead to more international expansion and even more impact with our consumers.