ACCO BRANDS Corp
For the period ended Dec 31, 2025. Filed Mar 9, 2026.
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FY2025 · Filed Mar 9, 2026
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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors
ACCO Brands Corporation:
Opinions on the Consolidated Financial Statements and Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of ACCO Brands Corporation and subsidiaries (the Company) as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, the related consolidated statements of income (loss), comprehensive income (loss), stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2025, and the related notes and financial statement Schedule II - Valuation and Qualifying Accounts and Reserves (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). We also have audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2025, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2025, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2025 based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
Basis for Opinions
The Company’s management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management's Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
Sufficiency of audit over net sales
As discussed in Note 17 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company recognizes revenue when control of the promised goods or services is transferred to their customers in an amount reflective of the consideration they expect to receive in exchange for those goods or services. The Company recorded $1,524.7 million of net sales for the year ended December 31, 2025.
We identified the evaluation of the sufficiency of audit evidence over net sales as a critical audit matter. Evaluating the sufficiency of audit evidence obtained required especially subjective auditor judgment because of the dispersion of the Company’s net sales generating activities across locations. This included determining the Company locations at which procedures were performed.
The following are the primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter. We applied auditor judgment to determine the nature and extent of procedures to be performed over net sales, including the determination of the Company locations at which those procedures were to be performed. For each Company location where procedures were performed, we evaluated the design and tested the operating effectiveness of certain internal controls over the Company’s net sales processes, including controls over the accurate recording of net sales amounts. For certain locations, we performed software-assisted data analyses to test relationships among certain sales transactions. For a selection of transactions, we compared the amounts recognized for consistency with underlying documentation, including purchase order, invoice, shipping documentation, and cash remittance. We evaluated the sufficiency of audit evidence obtained by assessing the results of procedures performed, including the nature and extent of such evidence.
Impairment Assessment of Americas Reporting Unit Goodwill and Five Star Trade Name Intangible Asset
As discussed in Note 10 to the consolidated financial statements, the goodwill balance as of December 31, 2025 for the Americas and International reporting units was $254.7 million and $223.8 million, respectively. The Company tests goodwill for impairment at least annually and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. To estimate the fair value of its reporting units, the Company used a combination of the discounted cash flows and market approach
We identified the evaluation of the recoverability of the carrying value of goodwill for the Americas and International reporting units as a critical audit matter. Subjective auditor judgment was required to evaluate certain assumptions used in the determination of the fair value of the Americas and International reporting units, including forecasted revenues, market multiples, and the discount rates because they were based on determinations of future market and economic conditions. Changes to these assumptions could have had a significant effect on the Company’s assessment of the fair value of the Americas and International reporting units. Additionally, involvement of professionals with specialized skill and knowledge was required to assess the market multiples and the discount rates and evaluate evidence obtained.
The following are the primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter. We evaluated the design and tested the operating effectiveness of certain internal controls over the Company’s goodwill impairment assessment process, including controls over the development of the assumptions described above. We evaluated the Company’s forecasted revenues for the Americas reporting unit by comparing to the growth rates used in the Company’s prior quantitative impairment assessments, historical operating results, current year actual operating results, forecasted information in external industry reports and leadership communications. We evaluated the Company’s forecasted revenues for the International reporting unit through historical operating results, current year actual operating results and leadership communications. We involved valuation professionals with specialized skills and knowledge, who assisted in:
evaluating the Company's market multiples by developing a range of market multiples based on external data for guideline public companies
evaluating the Company's discount rates by comparing the Company's inputs to the discount rates to publicly available data for comparable entities and assessing the resulting discount rates
testing the estimate of the Americas and International reporting units' fair values using the respective reporting unit's cash flow assumptions and discount rate, and comparing the result of the Company's fair value estimate for each reporting unit.
/s/ KPMG LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2009.
Chicago, Illinois
March 9, 2026
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