It’ s crunch time for P&G stockholders

Company trying to hold off a proxy battle from investor Nelson Peltz.

Cincinnati-basedconsumer goods power house Pro ct er& Gamble is trying to hold off a proxy battle from investor Nelson Peltz.

It’s crunch time for Procter & Gamble shareholders — and perhaps for Procter & Gamble itself.

The Cincinnati-based consumer goods powerhouse and local employer is trying to hold off a proxy battle fromNew York-based investor Nelson Peltz.

Nelson Peltz, the head of Trian Fund Management, argues P&G needs fresh leadership. He says the company suffers from “aging brands and a lack of break-through innovation,” all while suffering from “suffocating bureaucracy and excessive costs which create structural drags on the business.”

P&G is fighting back, urging shareholders to vote to keep him off the company’s board of directors. CNN Money reported that the company will spend at least $35 million in advertising against Peltz. (A P&G spokeswoman confirmed the number.)

“P&G is a profoundly different, much stronger, more profitable company than we were just a few years ago,” P&Gsaid in a statement released Tuesday. “Thechangeswe have made are broad-based and (are) delivering results.”

P&Gsays ithas cut excess brands and delivered $135 billion to shareholders over the past 10 years in the form of dividends and share repurchases.

ButPeltz apparentlyhas recently pickedupsomekey allies, saying in a recent Securities and Exchange Commissionfiling that shareholder advisory firms ISS, Glass Lewis and Egan-Jones have recommended “adding Nelson Peltz to the P&G Board is in the best interest of all shareholders.”

To win this boardroom battle, P&G urges shareholders to “vote blue,” approving a blue proxy card or blue voting formfor 11 approved nominees.

Several key vote deadlines are fast approaching.

If you’re a P&G employee, your first deadline is almost upon you. If you owncompany shares in a P&G employee plan, the company says those cannot be voted on at the annual meeting nextweek. These sharesmust be voted by 11:59 p.m. today. The other deadlines offer a bit more breathing room — but not much.

If youhold shares throughabank orbrokeragefirm, yourvotesshould be received at your bank or brokerage no later than 11:59 p.m. Monday, the company says.

The company’s annual shareholder meeting is 9 a.m. Tuesday at P&G’s corporate offices in downtown Cincinnati. If you plan to attend, you must be a P&G shareholder as of Aug. 11.

P&G has about 11,000 Ohio employees, with about 10,000 employees in the Cincinnati area and about 3,400 in downtown Cincinnati.

Thecompany has a business center inMason, withmore than 1,500 mostly research and development workers. A 1.7 million-square-foot distribution center for P&G products opened near the Dayton International Airport in 2015.

More than a third of P&G’s products moves through that distribution facility, with the help of a thirdparty supply chain manager, Exel.

Exel employs about 600 people and P&G has about 140 workers at the center, located inUnion.