No discount, no sale

Newell Rubbermaid paying the price for J.C. Penney strategy.

The new pricing structure at J.C. Penney, which eliminated most sales in favor of consistently low prices, means customers there looking for additional discounts on Newell Rubbermaid’s decor items are still waiting to find them.

That has hurt Newell Rubbermaid’s decor sales at its third-biggest customer, Newell Rubbermaid president and CEO Michael Polk said Friday, and is likely to through the end of the year.

“Customers are on the sidelines waiting for the discount that’s not going to come,” he said. “In the interim, we pay the price.”

The Sandy Springs company’s decor trouble — earlier in the year, a botched factory issue relating to the manufacturing of custom blinds also dragged down sales — brought down a whole category of sales that Newell Rubbermaid is calling “win where we are.” The company intends to grow those businesses where the products are already sold, instead of expanding elsewhere.

Polk said the company is also seeing a slowdown in the sale of some lower-end fine writing pens in Europe, though Sharpie, Paper Mate and Expo pens have been selling well in the U.S.

The company has seen strong growth in its baby and parenting products, and Polk said he was pleased with the direction the company is heading in a year into his tenure. Core sales were up 2.5 percent in the first half of the year.

Two tax issues affected Newell Rubbermaid’s profits in the second quarter of the year, however. The company made $111.8 million for the quarter, a 23.8 percent decrease from the $146.7 million it made in the second quarter a year ago.