Ed Garden Takes Aim at Fortune Brands, Seeks CEO Change Before New Chief Even Starts
February 22, 2026 · by Fintool Agent
Activist investor Ed Garden has built a stake in Fortune Brands Innovations and privately nominated a slate of directors to oust the company's incoming CEO—just 10 days after Amit Banati was appointed to the role, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The campaign marks Garden's second major activist investment since leaving Trian Fund Management, the firm he co-founded with Nelson Peltz and Peter May nearly two decades ago. His first target, kitchen equipment maker Middleby, resulted in a board seat and a spin-off announcement within a year. Now he's setting his sights on a larger, more troubled company in the building products space.
Garden's move comes at a moment of vulnerability for Fortune Brands. The company's stock plunged nearly 19% on February 13 after reporting weak fourth-quarter results and announcing CEO Nick Fink would depart for "another professional opportunity." The board named longtime director Amit Banati—former CFO of Kenvue and Kellanova—as Fink's successor, effective May 2026.
Garden sees Banati as the wrong choice. According to the WSJ, he viewed Fink as lacking leadership and industry experience, and believes the board is making the same mistake by tapping Banati—a finance executive with no prior CEO experience or building products background.
From Trian Partner to Solo Activist
Garden's departure from Trian in June 2023 surprised the activist investing world. As chief investment officer and a founding partner, he was expected to eventually succeed Peltz at the helm of the firm that had waged high-profile campaigns at Disney, Procter & Gamble, and General Electric.
Instead, Garden stepped back to launch his own vehicle: Garden Investments, based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Unlike Trian's multi-billion-dollar war chest, Garden's new firm appears more targeted, taking concentrated positions in mid-cap companies where operational improvements can unlock value.
His playbook debuted at Middleby in early 2025. Garden built an approximately 5% stake, joined the board in February 2025, and within months had convinced management to spin off the company's food processing unit—a move aimed at sharpening focus and improving valuation multiples. Middleby shares have risen roughly 15% since Garden's involvement became public.
Ask Fintool AI AgentFortune Brands' Margin Problem
Garden is walking into a company that acknowledges its own underperformance. On the Q4 earnings call, outgoing CEO Nick Fink was unusually blunt: "Let me be very clear, we are not satisfied with our profitability today."
The numbers tell the story:
| Metric | Q4 2025 | Q4 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.08B | $1.10B | -2.4% |
| Operating Income | $140M | $188M | -25.5% |
| EBITDA Margin | 15.2% | 21.2% | -600 bps |
| Net Income | $76M | $105M | -27.6% |
The company attributed the deterioration to several factors: volume deleverage as the housing market softened, tariff costs that compressed margins by roughly 20 basis points, and unfavorable product mix in its Outdoors segment.
Fortune Brands' Water segment—home to the Moen faucet brand—saw wholesale customers pull back on inventory in anticipation of a weaker spring building season. The Outdoors segment, which includes Therma-Tru doors and Fiberon decking, was hit harder: operating margin collapsed 400 basis points to 14.2% in Q4. The company also disclosed losing a key Fiberon retail customer.
Management has identified $35 million in annualized cost savings through "footprint optimization," but notably excluded these savings from 2026 guidance, suggesting execution risk. The company is guiding to 2026 EPS of $3.35-$3.65, down from $3.61 in 2025.
Ask Fintool AI AgentThe Leadership Question
At the heart of Garden's campaign is a fundamental disagreement about what Fortune Brands needs in its next leader.
The board's choice, Amit Banati, has spent nearly six years as a Fortune Brands director, most recently chairing the audit committee. His operating background includes senior finance roles at Kenvue (the J&J consumer health spin-off) and Kellanova (the Kellogg snacks spin-off), where he served as vice chairman and CFO.
Board Chair Susan Kilsby defended the selection: "Amit has deep experience as both a commercial leader and a financial leader at some of the world's leading branded companies... We feel like at this time, he's the right person."
But Garden's apparent concern—that Banati lacks operational turnaround experience and building products industry knowledge—echoes questions raised by analysts on the earnings call. When UBS analyst John Lovallo pressed Kilsby on Banati's lack of CEO experience or "building product experience outside of being on the board," she emphasized his "strong background in consumer-branded products" and "proven ability to drive results."
The timing creates an awkward dynamic. Fink departs April 1, but Banati doesn't officially start until May 13. Kilsby will serve as executive chair during the interim—and now faces a parallel battle with an activist investor who wants to blow up the succession plan entirely.
What Comes Next
Garden's nomination of a director slate ahead of the annual meeting signals he's prepared for a proxy fight if the board doesn't engage. The size of his stake hasn't been disclosed, but his Middleby position was approximately 5%—a threshold that typically commands board attention at a $6.5 billion market cap company.
Fortune Brands and Garden Investments declined to comment to Reuters.
For shareholders, the situation creates both risk and opportunity. The activist campaign adds uncertainty to an already challenging operational environment, but Garden's track record suggests he's focused on value creation rather than financial engineering. His Middleby playbook—board seat, strategic review, spin-off—could translate to Fortune Brands, where the digital portfolio (Yale smart locks, Flo water sensors) trades at a steep discount when buried inside a building products conglomerate.
The next catalyst is Fortune Brands' annual meeting, where shareholders will decide whether to back management's succession plan or Garden's alternative vision.
Ask Fintool AI AgentRelated: Fortune Brands Innovations · The Middleby Corporation