To Our Shareholders:

In 2012, Newell Rubbermaid delivered solid results while simultaneously driving significant change as we deployed the first stage of the Growth Game Plan strategy into action. Our demonstrated ability to deliver results while undertaking change gives us the confidence to now accelerate the pace of our transformation — as we strive to build our Company into a larger, faster-growing, more global, more profitable Newell Rubbermaid.

A Strong Year in a Tough Environment

Our Company delivered sequential improvement in performance in 2012 on every key performance metric, despite sluggish macro environments in North America and Europe. Core sales grew 2.2 percent, 40 basis points faster than in 2011, normalized earnings increased 6.9 percent to $1.70 per share, normalized operating income margin increased 10 basis points, and operating cash flow increased 10.2 percent to $618.5 million.

Our strong cash flow enabled us to further strengthen our balance sheet and reduce leverage — exiting 2012 with the strongest credit metrics in close to five years. Equally as important, we returned value to our shareholders through significant dividend increases and our repurchase of 4.9 million shares of NWL stock.

Beyond our solid market performance, we simultaneously drove change. We launched the Growth Game Plan, our new strategy that focuses on sharper portfolio choices and strengthening capabilities with the ambition to make Newell Rubbermaid a larger, faster-growing, more global, more profitable company.

We successfully executed the first phase of Project Renewal, taking the steps to simplify our organizational structure. We are on track to capture $90 million to $100 million of cumulative annualized cost savings from this initiative by our mid-2013 target, on time and in full.

We announced the expansion of Project Renewal, a major sequential step to drive the Growth Game Plan into action with five new cost work streams, including Organization Simplification, EMEA Transformation, Best Cost Finance, Best Cost Back Office and Global Supply Chain. By mid-2015, we expect the expansion of Project Renewal to generate an additional $180 million to $225 million in cumulative annualized savings. These savings will be redeployed into programs to strengthen brand-building and selling capabilities in our Win Bigger businesses and geographies.

Driving the Growth Game Plan into Action

With solid momentum and our increasing confidence across much of the portfolio, in late 2012 we announced a major initiative designed to accelerate the pace of transformation and more boldly drive the Growth Game Plan into action. The centerpiece of this announcement was a change in our operating model that aligned our structure with our strategy while also reducing the complexity of our organization. We reorganized the Company around the first two pillars of the Growth Game Plan: our brand and category development activities (Development); and our market execution activities (Delivery).

Coincident with these changes, we strengthened our executive leadership team with key new appointments from both within and outside the Company. Every member of this newly assembled team is a recognized leader in her or his respective field, and they significantly strengthen the four key functional capabilities of Customer Development, Supply Chain, Design and R&D, and Marketing. Combined, the new Newell Rubbermaid executive team brings decades of experience to our shared vision of building a better company, and we began 2013 with this team in place, running at full speed.

Building Confidence and Optimism

I see more potential in our business today than I ever imagined upon joining Newell Rubbermaid in 2011. Our confidence is building across the business, and we have a growing sense of clarity that we can accelerate performance by driving the Growth Game Plan into action. I could not be more confident in our ability to achieve our ambition to build Newell Rubbermaid into a larger, faster-growing, more global, more profitable company. The opportunity to unlock our upside is energizing for me and my team and a compelling opportunity for our shareholders.