Leggett & Platt

Leggett & Platt (L&P) (NYSE|LEG) is a Fortune 500 diversified manufacturer that conceives, designs and produces a broad variety of engineered components and products that can be found in virtually every home, office, retail store, and automobile. The company serves a broad suite of customers that comprise a "Who's Who" of U.S. manufacturers and retailers. The 125-year-old firm comprises 21 business units, 24,000 employee-partners, and more than 250 facilities located in over 20 countries.

Leggett & Platt is North America's leading independent manufacturer of:
* Components for residential furniture and mattress sets
* Retail store fixtures and point-of-purchase displays
* Components for office furniture
* Drawn steel wire
* Automotive seat support and lumbar systems
* Carpet underlay
* Adjustable beds
* Bedding industry machinery

Quick Facts

* Company headquarters in Carthage, Missouri
* Broad customer base; mainly manufacturers and retailers
* Few large competitors; almost none are public
* 4 Reporting Segments; 10 Groups; 21 Business Units
* 24,000 employee-partners
* More than 300 facilities in over 20 countries
* Dividend Track Record - 37 consecutive years of annual dividend increases
* 2006: Record Sales of $5.5 billion; 21% international
* 2006: Cash from Operations was $479 million, up 7% from 2005
* 2006: New CEO and COO (only the 4th CEO transition in 70 years)
* 2006: Renewed focus on innovation, product development, and growth

Segments

Residential Furnishings

The Residential Furnishings segment began with an 1885 patent of the steel coil bedspring. Leggett & Platt had invented the bedspring with which it launched the U.S. bedspring industry, and as the industry leader, it has continued to "reinvent" its bedspring to great commercial success. Leggett has since been a driving force for continued bedspring development and industry growth. Today, Leggett supplies a variety of components used by bedding and upholstered furniture manufacturers in the assembly of their finished products. For example, Leggett will often supply a bedding manufacturer with most components of a mattress and foundation. Leggett also provides a wide array of components for manufacturers of upholstered recliner chairs, sofas and loveseats.

;Major Product Groups
* Bedding components
* Furniture components
* Adjustable beds
* Ornamental beds
* Fabrics
* Carpet cushion
* Geo components

Commercial Fixturing & Components

The Commercial Fixturing & Components segment encompasses three areas. Leggett is the market leader in the design and production of store fixtures, point-of-purchase displays, and storage products used by retailers. In addition, Leggett is the leading independent producer of chaircontrols, bases and other components for office furniture manufacturers. Leggett also produces injection molded plastic components used in a wide variety of end products.

;Major Product Groups
* Shelving, racks, and display cases
* Point-of-purchase displays
* Chair controls and bases
* Plastic components

Industrial Materials

Leggett & Platt is North America’s leading supplier of drawn steel wire and a major producer of welded steel tubing. About half of the wire it produces and roughly one-quarter of its tubing is used by other Leggett businesses. Other customers include bedding and furniture makers, mechanical spring producers, and automotive seat manufacturers. Leggett's businesses also produce specialty wire products (things like cotton bale ties, and boxed and shaped wire); equipment used for baling agricultural products and recyclable waste; coated wire dishwasher racks and coated wire products for other industries; and wire retail fixtures and point-of-purchase displays. Leggett also cuts, forms, and bends steel tubing used for automotive seat frames and other components.

;Major Product Groups
* Steel wire
* Specialty wire products
* Coated wire products
* Wire retail fixtures and point-of-purchase displays
* Welded steel tubing

Specialized Products

This segment consists of three groups that design and produce:
* Lumbar systems and wire seating components sold primarily to automotive seating manufacturers
* Van interiors (racks, shelving and cabinets installed in service vans) and truck bodies (for cargo vans, flatbed trucks, service trucks, and dump trucks) used in light-to-medium duty commercial trucks, and sold primarily to truck manufacturers and dealers, fleet owners(typically utility, telecom, and other service and delivery companies), and other commercial end-users
* Wire forming equipment, industrial quilting and sewing machinery, and other automation equipment, both for our own use and for external customers (primarily bedding manufacturers)

;Major Product Groups
* Lumbar systems and other automotive seating components
* Service van interiors and truck bodies
* Wire forming, quilting, and automation machinery

Recent Recognition

Leggett & Platt ranks within the Fortune 500. [http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=101908&p=irol-homeProfile]
* #419 in Size (based upon 2006 revenues)
* #353 in Net Earnings
* #170 in Annual Return on Assets
* #212 in 10-year EPS growth
* #307 in 10-year Total Shareholder Return Other Recognition
* Named to Standard & Poor's list of 2007 "Dividend Aristocrats"
* March 2007, again included in Fortune Magazine's list of America's Most Admired Companies
* Among the top 110 firms in the 2007 edition of Mergent's Dividend Achievers, as ranked by 10-year dividend growth rate
* Named to the 16th annual (2007 edition) "America's Finest Companies" investment directory

Leggett Management

As of August 2008, senior corporate executives included:
* David S. Haffner, CEO
* Karl G. Glassman, COO
* Matthew C. Flanigan, CFO
* David M. DeSonier, Strategy and Investor Relations

Board of Directors

LEG Stock

* 1967 - Leggett & Platt IPO of 50,000 shares of stock at a price of $10 per share; the stock is traded over the counter
* 1971 - Leggett's stock is listed on the NASDAQ
* 1979 - Leggett is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under symbol "LEG"

History of Stock Splits:
* May 13, 1969: 5-for-3
* Jan. 15, 1973: 3-for-2
* Sept. 29, 1978: 3-for-2
* Aug. 26, 1983: 2-for-1
* Mar. 14, 1986: 3-for-2
* Jun. 15, 1992: 2-for-1
* Sept. 15, 1995: 2-for-1
* Jun. 15, 1998: 2-for-1

Environmental Record

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified Leggett & Platt as the 54th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 150,000 pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air. [ [http://www.peri.umass.edu/Toxic-100-Table.265.0.html Political Economy Research Institute Toxic 100 (Study released May 11, 2006)] retrieved 17 Aug 2007] Major pollutants indicated by the study include sulfuric acid, nickel compounds, and diisocyanates. [ [http://www.rtknet.org/new/tox100/toxic100.php?company1=14179&chemfac=chem&advbasic=bas Toxics Release Inventory courtesy rtknet.org] ]

In 2007, Leggett & Platt’s corporate office indicated that the US EPA Toxic Chemical Release Data used by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (and referenced above) is from the year 2000. Data for 2006 shows total on-site air releases from the Leggett & Platt facilities listed in the 2000 report have declined by more than 90% since 2000Fact|date=August 2007, to less than 2,500 poundsFact|date=August 2007. These reductions resulted, in part, from the following action by Leggett & Platt over the past seven years: a) removal of the sulfuric acid cleaning operation and nickel plating bath at Talbot Industries;Fact|date=August 2007 b) replacement of methylene chloride at polyurethane foam plants with a Cardio process that uses carbon dioxide as a blowing agent; c) installation of powder paint lines and low VOC paint systems to replace solvent coating operations;Fact|date=August 2007 and d) use of low VOC and water based cleaning solvents at Pulsar Plastics rather than methyl ethyl ketone.Fact|date=August 2007

References

External links

* [http://www.leggett.com/ L&P's Homepage]
* [http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=LEG&script=2100 L&P Corporate Overview]