Newell Rubbermaid CEO to retire later this year

The company owns brands like Calphalon and Sharpie.

Ketchum said when he became CEO he would stay for at least five years.

"The company has been transformed now. Newell Rubbermaid has a lot of upside potential," he said. "It's a good company, and it's in a good place for me to leave."

Ketchum said Newell Rubbermaid had been a company of "functional silos," and business units were independent and internally competitive. Building a new culture was important, Ketchum said, as was increasing the amount of money spent on marketing and research and development.

Ketchum will remain in his role until a new CEO is named, and will stay on the board of directors until 2012. He said the most important qualities in a new leader are a commitment to enhancing the corporate culture and a focus on building brands globally.

About 30 percent of Newell Rubbermaid's sales are currently outside the United States, Ketchum said.

Both internal and external candidates will be sought. A spokesman for the company said he expected the process to take four to six months.

In a research note released after the announcement, Citi analyst Wendy Nicholson said she is "definitely disappointed" to see Ketchum go.

"All in all, [Newell Rubbermaid] seems to be a far better managed and better quality company than it was just five years ago," she wrote.

J.P. Morgan analyst John Faucher wrote that the business is on solid footing.

Newell Rubbermaid moved to Atlanta from Illinois in 2003. The $5.6 billion company is No. 373 on the Fortune 500 and employs 1,100 employees at its headquarters and an additional 200 at a distribution facility near Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.