traded as nyse spb industry electric housewares mfg artificial plants mfg battery mfg pesticide mfg lighting equipment mfg predecessor rayovac corporation founded january 17 1906 ; 110 years ago 1906 01 17 as french battery company madison wisconsin u.s. headquarters middleton wisconsin u.s. key people david maura chair andreas rouv ceo doug martin evp & cfo john heil president pet supplies and co coo products rayovac & varta batteries rayovac lighting remington personal appliances marineland aquariums tetra fish care dingo dog treats spectracide lawn care hot shot home insecticides cutter & repel insect repellents schultz plant care revenue 3 187 m 1 number of employees 12 000 2 divisions global batteries & appliances hardware & home improvement home and garden global pet supplies global auto care subsidiaries united industrial corporation united pet group armored autogroup website spectrumbrands.com spectrum brands holdings inc. is an american diversified company established in 2005 as the successor company to rayovac corporation . rayovac had been located in wisconsin since its conception as the french battery company in 1906 . rayovac as a division of spectrum brands remained headquartered in madison wisconsin along with remington even while the parent company spectrum brands was headquartered in georgia . on april 15 2010 spectrum brands announced that it would be moving corporate headquarters back to madison wi . spectrum brands moved its headquarters to middleton wi in october 2013 . the company manufactures and markets batteries under the rayovac and varta brand names home appliances under the remington russell hobbs and george foreman brand names lawn and garden care products under the spectracide and garden safe brand names insect repellents under the cutter and repel brand names . 3 spectrum owns several pet care companies both in the aquarium supply and companion animal trades . in the aquarium business spectrum owns tetra whisper marineland perfecto jungle instant ocean visi therm and other product lines . companion animal lines consist of dingo lazy pet wonderbox and others . both aquarium lines and companion lines are concentrated into spectrum s united pet group based in cincinnati ohio . contents 1 history 1.1 diversification and name change 1.2 russell hobbs inc. 1.3 armored autogroup 2 battery products 3 further reading 4 references 5 external links history edit ray o vac d size battery in 1906 the french battery co. was founded in madison wisconsin by james bowen ramsay 1869 1952 with alfred landau as its first president . in 1910 landau was replaced by c.f. burgess and the company became profitable . after a fire destroyed the plant in 1915 burgess left to found his own company . production rose during the first world war and by 1920 the french company had us 2.74 million in sales and 600 employees and 1000 employees in 1931 . 4 in 1930 the company name was changed to ray o vac an allusion to the then new technology of vacuum tubes and electron rays . in 1933 the company patented the first wearable vacuum tube hearing aid . 5 during its ownership by the parent company of esb industrials a british subsidiary was established to manufacture and market batteries in the united kingdom under the ray o vac name . this operation ceased in 1972 ; ray o vac batteries continued to be marketed although they were manufactured by the british ever ready company . citation needed in 1988 the name was simplified to rayovac . diversification and name change edit in 2003 rayovac decided to diversify 3 and acquired non battery related businesses including remington products and united pet group . in 2004 rayovac successfully underbid energizer eveready as radioshack s battery supplier and produced the enercell brand of battery sold exclusively at radioshack . in january 2005 rayovac purchased united industries corporation for about 476 million in cash and stock . brands included in united industries were vigoro spectracide and sta green lawn products cutter hot shot and repel insect control products and pet supply products with the marineland perfecto and eight in one brands . 6 in 2005 tetra a major provider of pet fish products was acquired . this diversification prompted the name change from rayovac to spectrum brands . 3 rayovac also bought other battery companies including varta ningbo baowang and microlite s.a. . the microlite acquisition included the rights to the rayovac name in brazil giving the company worldwide rights to the rayovac name . 7 with this acquisition rayovac consolidated its presence in the majority of countries in latin america . rayovac is a well recognized brand in this region . heavily leveraged in debt spectrum attempted to sell its pet division united pet group containing aquarium products and supplies under the tetra marineland instant ocean and jungle brand names and pet care products under the dingo firstrax 8 in 1 and nature s miracles brand names . appliance maker salton owned by hedge fund harbinger capital agreed to pay approximately 692 million cash to purchase the pet care division but the deal collapsed on july 14 2008 . according to forbes and the wall street journal the sale was rejected by spectrum s own key lenders most likely because the deal valued the brands for less than what the bankers considered them to be worth . citation needed on february 3 2009 spectrum filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection . 8 the company later emerged from bankruptcy on august 28 2009 . 2 9 since emerging from chapter 11 spectrum has announced year over year increases in sales and adjusted ebitda for the second quarter of their fiscal 2010 . russell hobbs inc. edit spectrum brands finalized a merger with russell hobbs inc. formerly known as salton inc. on june 16 2010 to form a new 3 billion consumer products company . russell hobbs brands include george foreman grill toastmaster black & decker home appliances and russell hobbs . armored autogroup edit on april 28 2015 spectrum brands entered the automotive supply business by acquiring armored autogroup which makes armor all finishes and stp automotive chemicals among other products . 10 battery products edit rayovac 1.5 v c battery rayovac manufactures alkaline batteries ranging in size from aaa to 9v rechargeable nimh batteries hearing aid batteries lithium photo batteries specialty batteries and portable power chargers . in addition a variety of portable led flashlights and lanterns are produced under the rayovac brand . 11 further reading edit noor robert ; et al. rayovac case analysis southern methodist university . archived 2006 references edit fiscal year 2011 report . a b spectrum brands inc. . spectrumbrands.com . specturm brands . retrieved april 28 2014 . a b c justin rubner august 18 2006 . spectrum ceo company could sell rayovac . atlanta business chronicle . retrieved january 12 2010 . dead link stuart d. levitan ed madison the illustrated sesquicentennial history vol . 1 university of wisconsin press 2006 isbn 0 299 21674 8 p 201 . rayovac company history timeline rayovac buys united industries in 476m deal . fox news . associated press . january 4 2005 . retrieved january 12 2010 . rayovac to acquire microlite s.a. press release . spectrum brands . 2006 02 25 . retrieved 2010 06 08 . spectrum brands files for bankruptcy . msnbc.com . associated press . retrieved january 11 2010 . keating gina ; carol bishopric 2009 08 28 . update 1 spectrum brands exits bankruptcy . reuters.com . thomson reuters . retrieved 2014 01 12 . hrg group inc. announces armored autogroup acquisition by spectrum brands . prnewswire . 2015 04 28 . retrieved 2016 04 04 . rayovac website external links edit official site remington us russell hobbs us russell hobbs uk remington uk juiceman breadman v t e spectrum brands global batteries & appliances rayovac varta remington black & decker home george foreman juiceman breadman russell hobbs farberware toastmaster hardware & home improvement kwikset baldwin weiser pfister stanley hardware national hardware ez set fanal tell manufacturing united industrial corporation spectracide cutter hot shot black flag repel liquid fence garden safe united pet group marineland instant ocean jungle tetra dingo furminator nature s miracle perfect coat lazy pet pro sense excel m2n kookamunga wonderbox one earth wild harvest ecotrition noztonoz petnation healthy hide digesteeze littermaid armored autogroup armor all stp a c pro retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title spectrum brands & oldid 738657034 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangecompanies that filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009conglomerate companies of the united statescompanies based in madison wisconsincompanies established in 1906hidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from october 2010all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from july 2012articles with unsourced statements from july 2008 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran ais portugu s edit links this page was last modified on 10 september 2016 at 08 45 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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