Newell Rubbermaid’s net sales declined 1.9% to $1.52 billion in the second quarter ended June 30. Net income declined 23.8% to $111.8 million. But those declines didn’t prevent CEO Michael Polk from looking at the bright side and pointing to momentum.

Core sales, which exclude the impact of changes in foreign currency translation, grew by 0.4%. And net sales for the first six months were $2.85 billion, up 1.0 % from the first-half results last year.