The Spectrum Brands origin story begins on January 17, 1906, in Madison, Wisconsin, when the French Battery and Carbon Company was founded with a modest investment of $3,500 by James Bowen Ramsey and local investors including Charles T. Hollabird and Edwin F. French. The company's initial focus was manufacturing zinc-carbon dry-cell batteries for flashlights, telecommunication devices, and portable lighting—a product category experiencing rapid growth as electrification spread across American households. In 1910, the company made its first sale of flashlight batteries, and by 1914 it was selling flashlights under the trade name 'French Flasher.' The 1920s brought national branding efforts, with the company trademarking Ray-O-Spark for ignition batteries in 1920 and Ray-O-Lite for flashlights and Ray-O-Vac for dry batteries in 1921. The Ray-O-Vac name—emphasizing the vacuum-sealing technology that made the company's batteries leak-resistant—was officially adopted in 1934 and eventually shortened to Rayovac. During the Great Depression, the company diversified into waxes, polishes, shaving cream, and even a 'creme-freezer' for making frozen desserts—an early indication of the portfolio expansion instinct that would define the company a century later. World War II transformed Rayovac into a critical military supplier, with the company diverting all battery production to the armed forces and supplying approximately 500 million batteries to power bazookas, radio communications, and mine detectors. The company earned eight Army-Navy 'E' awards for its wartime production efforts and invented a longer-lasting battery technology specifically for the hot and humid Pacific theater. Postwar, Rayovac expanded into hearing-aid batteries—a premium-margin niche that would remain a core business for decades—and continued to innovate in battery technology, holding patents for the first battery-powered radio and the first battery-powered hearing aid. The company's products achieved cultural significance: in 1928, Charles Lindbergh carried two Rayovac flashlights in his emergency equipment during his first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and in 1981, Rayovac batteries were aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia's debut mission. By the 1970s and 1980s, Rayovac faced intensifying competition from Duracell and Eveready in the alkaline battery market, leading the company to emphasize value positioning and private-label manufacturing. The company's response to competitive pressure was not innovation but acquisition—a pattern that would define its modern history. In 2003, Rayovac acquired Remington Products, the electric shaver and grooming company, for approximately $300 million, marking its first major diversification beyond batteries. In 2005, the company acquired United Industries (maker of Spectracide, Hot Shot, and Black Flag pest control products) and Tetra (the German aquatics company), then rebranded itself as Spectrum Brands to reflect its multi-category portfolio. The 2005 acquisitions were transformative, adding approximately $1 billion in revenue and establishing the company as a diversified consumer products enterprise. In 2009, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, overwhelmed by debt from its acquisition spree, but emerged later that same year with a restructured balance sheet. In 2010, Spectrum Brands merged with Russell Hobbs, Inc., the UK-based small appliance company, creating a substantially larger consumer products entity with brands including George Foreman grills, Russell Hobbs small appliances, and Farberware cookware. In 2012, the company acquired Stanley Black & Decker's Hardware & Home Improvement business for $1.4 billion, adding Kwikset, Weiser, Baldwin, National Hardware, and Pfister to the portfolio. In 2015, the company acquired Armored AutoGroup for approximately $935 million, adding Armor All car care products, STP fuel additives, and A/C Pro refrigerant products. The 2018 merger with HRG Group, Inc. created the current public company structure, with HRG changing its name to Spectrum Brands Holdings and the stock ticker changing from HRG to SPB. Then came the great divestitures: in 2019, the company sold its global battery and portable lighting business—including the original Rayovac brand—to Energizer for $2.0 billion, exiting the category that had defined the company for 113 years. In 2021, the company announced the sale of its Hardware & Home Improvement segment to ASSA ABLOY for $4.3 billion, a transaction that faced a DOJ antitrust challenge, required ASSA ABLOY to divest its Emtek and Smart Residential businesses to Fortune Brands, and finally closed in June 2023 after nearly two years of regulatory navigation. These divestitures reduced the company's revenue from a peak of approximately $4.6 billion to $2.8 billion, but also reduced total liabilities from $4.5 billion to $1.47 billion and transformed Spectrum Brands from a leveraged conglomerate into a focused consumer staples company.