Rayovac 2005 Annual Report Download - page 29

particular classes of electrical goods fi nancially
responsible for specifi ed collection, recycling, treat-
ment and disposal of past and future covered
products. WEEE assigns levels of responsibility to
companies doing business in EU markets based on
their relative market share. WEEE calls on each EU
member state to enact enabling legislation to imple-
ment the directive. Thus far, a large majority of EU
member states have passed WEEE legislation with
effective dates ranging from August 2005 to early
2006. To comply with WEEE requirements, Spectrum
has partnered with other fi rms to create a compre-
hensive collection, treatment, disposal, and recycling
program. As additional EU member states pass
enabling legislation, our compliance system should
be suffi cient to meet such requirements. Our current
estimated costs associated with Spectrum’s compli-
ance with WEEE based on our current market share
are $1 million per annum. However, we continue to
evaluate the impact of the WEEE Legislation as EU
member states implement guidance, and actual
costs could differ from our current estimates.
Certain of our products and facilities are regu-
lated by the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (the “EPA”), the United States Food and Drug
Administration (the “FDA”) or other federal consumer
protection and product safety regulations, as well as
similar registration, approval and other requirements
under state and foreign laws and regulations. For
example, in the United States, all products contain-
ing pesticides must be registered with the EPA and,
in many cases, similar state and foreign agencies
before they can be manufactured or sold. The inabil-
ity to obtain or the cancellation of any registration
could have an adverse effect on our business, fi nan-
cial condition and results of operations. The severity
of the effect would depend on which products were
involved, whether another product could be substi-
tuted and whether our competitors were similarly
affected. We attempt to anticipate regulatory develop-
ments and maintain registrations of, and access to,
substitute chemicals and other ingredients. We may
not always be able to avoid or minimize these risks.
The Food Quality Protection Act established a
standard for food-use pesticides, which is that a rea-
sonable certainty of no harm will result from the
cumulative effect of pesticide exposures. Under this
Act, the EPA is evaluating the cumulative effects
from dietary and non-dietary exposures to pesti-
cides. The pesticides in certain of our products con-
tinue to be evaluated by the EPA as part of this
exposure. It is possible that the EPA or a third party
active ingredient registrant may decide that a
pesticide we use in our products will be limited or
made unavailable to us. For example, in 2000, Dow
AgroSciences L.L.C., an active ingredient registrant,
voluntarily agreed to a withdrawal of virtually all
residential uses of chlorpyrifos, an active ingredient
that, until January 2001, United used in its lawn and
garden products under the name Dursban™. This
had a material adverse effect on United’s operations
resulting in a charge of $8.0 million in 2001. We
cannot predict the outcome or the severity of the
effect of the EPA’s continuing evaluations of active
ingredients used in our products.
Certain of our products and packaging materials
are subject to regulations administered by the FDA.
Among other things, the FDA enforces statutory
prohibitions against misbranded and adulterated
products, establishes ingredients and manufacturing
procedures for certain products, establishes stan-
dards of identity for certain products, determines
the safety of products and establishes labeling stan-
dards and requirements. In addition, various states
regulate these products by enforcing federal and
state standards of identity for selected products,
grading products, inspecting production facilities,
and imposing their own labeling requirements.
Employees
We have approximately 9,800 full-time employees
worldwide as of September 30, 2005. Approximately
12% of our total labor force is covered by collective
bargaining agreements. We believe that our relation-
ship with our employees is good and there have
been no work stoppages involving our employees
since 1981 in North America and since 1991 in the
United Kingdom.
Available Information
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K
and amendments to reports fi led pursuant to Sec-
tions 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) are
made available free of charge on or through our web-
site at www.spectrumbrands.com as soon as rea-
sonably practicable after such reports are fi led with,
or furnished to, the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). You may read
and copy any materials we fi le with the SEC at the
SEC’s Public Reference Room at 450 Fifth Street,
NW, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain infor-
mation on the operation of the Public Reference
2005 Form 10-K Annual Report
Spectrum Brands, Inc.
2005 ANNUAL REPORT 9