Dive Brief:

• Spectrum Brands CFO Jeremy Smeltser was terminated without cause from his role effective Wednesday as part of a separation agreement entered into by the company “in furtherance of its prior stated objective of reducing its spending,” according to a securities filing. Smeltser’s departure is not a result of any disagreement between the CFO and the company, its board or management, according to the filing.
• Also effective Sept. 3, Spectrum — the parent of brands including Black + Decker, George Foreman and Nature’s Miracle — promoted its Vice President of Strategic Finance and Enterprise Reporting Faisal Qadir to the role of finance chief, according to the Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Smeltser’s departure comes as Spectrum embarks on a plan to reduce its costs as it continues to field the impact of being hit by what CEO and Chairman David Maura referred to as “the tariff torpedo” during the company’s most recent earnings call. The company’s operations were severely disrupted by tariffs during its second quarter, particularly those levied on imports from China — causing Spectrum to have to “take very swift and quite frankly, draconian actions to protect the company,” Maura said during its third quarter earnings call on Aug. 7.

Dive Insight:

Smeltser is departing after a six-year tenure as the Middleton, Wisc.-based company’s CFO, taking the seat in October 2019, according to his LinkedIn profile. He will remain as a full-time employee at Spectrum until Dec. 31 to help assist with the CFO transition and “other strategic initiatives as requested by the Company,” according to the Wednesday filing.

For the company’s fiscal 2025 ending Sept. 30, Smeltser will continue to be paid his base salary and will also be eligible to receive a payout from the company’s management incentive plan, as well as vesting of his time-based and performance equity awards for the fiscal year, Spectrum said. Per the separation agreement, Smeltser is also entitled to receive a cash severance payment equal to 18 months of his base salary, his target annual bonus — payable over an 18-month period — and a pro-rata portion of his annual bonus for fiscal 2026, according to the filing.

For the full year 2024, Smeltser received total compensation of $4.5 million, according to the company’s latest proxy statement filed June 24. That included a base salary of $592,115, a stock award valued at $2.7 million and non-equity compensation of approximately $1 million.  

Smeltser’s successor Qadir has held various financial and executive roles during his 12-year tenure at Spectrum, joining the company in December 2012 from Stanley Black & Decker as its finance director, according to his LinkedIn profile. Qadir will continue to receive his annual base salary for fiscal 2025, according to the Wednesday filing.

Beginning in fiscal 2026, Qadir will be eligible to receive an annual base salary of $450,000, a target MIP bonus of 75% of his base salary and a maximum bonus of 150% of annual base salary, as well as a long-term incentive plan award with a target value of 200% of his base, according to the filing.

“The Company thanks Mr. Smeltser for his contributions and wishes him the best with his future endeavors,” Spectrum said in the filing. “The Company congratulates and welcomes Mr. Qadir as its new Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.”  

Qadir will assume the top financial seat as Spectrum targets additional cost savings in the face of tariff policies which have significantly affected the company’s business. After the Trump administration raised tariffs on imports from China in April — bringing the total tariffs on goods to effectively 145% at the time — Spectrum halted imports of nearly all finished good purchases from the country “until the tariff levels decline to an amount where we can maintain our profitability and margins,” Maura said in a statement included in the company’s Q2 earnings release on May 8.

While Spectrum resumed placing orders after tariffs on China eased — subsiding to 30% in May — the company still saw lingering impacts during its third quarter, executives said on the call.

In response to an analyst question asking executives to reasonably quantify sales left on the table by its actions in the second quarter, “if you look all in, we would probably estimate it's in the neighborhood of $30 million in Q3,” CFO Smeltser said. However, that impact is likely to be “quite a bit less” during Q4, he said.

For the quarter ended June 30, Spectrum reported a decrease of 10.2% in net sales to nearly $700 million, according to its Q3 earnings report. Net income of $20.5 million for the quarter rose  by 7.3% from the prior year period, while gross profit slumped by 12.8% to $264 million.

“We have now put Q3 in the rearview mirror and are focusing on the remainder of fiscal 2025 and the future,” Maura said in a statement included in the Q3 earnings release. “Supply is turned back on, we are diversifying our supply base, and we have our initial pricing in place. We have also looked internally and reduced costs by over $50 million in fiscal 2025.”

Spectrum did not immediately respond to requests for comment.