This quarter, we grew sales by a very healthy 16% and we increased earnings per share by 4.7%.
If you exclude the impact of amortization, then our earnings per share was up even more significantly at 9.1%.
This quarter, we returned more than $30 million to our shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks.
And we're still in a net cash position of more than $90 million.
In our WPS business, sales were down by 7.8%.
In our Identification Solutions business, we continue to post excellent results with sales growth of 25.4% and segment profit growth of 21.2%.
And if you exclude the impact of amortization expense, segment profit would have been up a robust 26.4%.
Even with these inflationary pressures, our gross profit margin was still an enviable 48.2%, which was right in line with the 48.2% experience in the fourth quarter of last year.
But our cost increases have neither been large enough nor fast enough to fully keep up with rising costs, resulting in our gross margins being down around 70 basis points and year-over-year basis.
We believe that these gross margin challenges are temporary and that in the near term we'll return to our historical gross margin levels of close to 50%.
I'll start the financial review on slide number 3.
Sales in the first quarter were $321.5 million, which was an increase of 16% when compared to the same quarter last year, and GAAP pre-tax earnings increased 5.8% to $44.7 million.
If you exclude amortization expense from all periods presented, and our pre-tax earnings would have increased by 11.3% to $48.5 million.
GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.67, which was an increase of 4.7% over last year's first quarter.
And if you exclude amortization expense, then earnings per share would have increased by 9.1% to $0.72 this quarter compared to $0.66 in the first quarter of last year.
Our 16% sales increase consisted of organic sales growth of 7%, and increase from acquisitions of 8.3% and an increase from foreign currency translation of 0.7%.
Organic sales growth in our ID Solutions Business was a robust 13.2% in Q1.
As a result of these tough comparables, we saw a decline in WPS organic sales of 8.6% this quarter.
If we compare our sales levels to the pre-pandemic period, which for us would be the first quarter of fiscal 2020, you'll see that our total sales are up a full 12% over pre-pandemic levels.
And if you compare sales by division, you'll see that Identification Solutions is 15.6% above pre-pandemic levels and workplace safety is 1.2% above pre-pandemic levels.
Turning to slide number 5, you'll see our gross profit margin trending.
Our gross profit margin was 48.2% this quarter, compared to 48.9% in the first quarter of last year.
As Michael mentioned, we're seeing inflationary pressures, and we're finding it difficult to fill open manufacturing roles.
On slide number 6, you'll find our SG&A expense trending.
SG&A was $96.7 million this quarter, compared to $83 million in the first quarter of last year.
Amortization expense was $1.4 million in the first quarter of last year and was $3.8 million in the first quarter of this year.
And as a percent of sales, SG&A was 30.1% this quarter, compared to 30% in the first quarter of last year so effectively, right in line with the prior year.
However, if you exclude amortization expense from both the current year and the prior year then SG&A would have declined from 29.5% of sales last year to 28.9% of sales this year.
Slide number 7 is the trending of our investments in research and development.
This quarter, we invested $13.9 million in R&D.
Slide number 8 illustrates our pre-tax income trends.
Pretax earnings increased 5.8% on a GAAP basis and increased 11.3% if you exclude amortization expense from all periods.
Slide number 9 illustrates our after-tax income and earnings per share trends.
As I mentioned, our GAAP earnings per share was $0.67 this quarter compared to $0.64 in last year's first quarter, an increase of 4.7%.
And if you exclude the after-tax impact of amortization, our earnings per share would have increased by an even stronger 9.1%.
On slide number 10, you'll find a summary of our cash generation.
We generated $27.5 million of cash flow from operating activities and free cash flow was $16.2 million this quarter.
This quarter, we purchased two previously leased manufacturing facilities for a total cash outlay of $7.6 million.
Over the last six months, we've increased our inventories by approximately $30 million.
Even after returning more than $30 million to our shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks, having heightened capex and intentionally increasing inventory levels, on October 31, we were still in a net cash position of more than $90 million.
We've now increased our annual dividend for 36 consecutive years, which puts us in a pretty elite group of companies.
Slide number 12 summarizes our guidance for the year ending July 31, 2022.
Our full-year diluted earnings per share guidance, excluding amortization remains unchanged at a range of $3.12 to $3.32 per share.
On a GAAP basis, our full-year diluted earnings per share guidance also remains unchanged at a range of $2.90 to $3.10 per share.
Included in our GAAP earnings per share guidance is an increase in after-tax amortization expense of approximately $6 million.
After-tax amortization increases from about $5.5 million in fiscal 2021 to about $11.5 million in fiscal 2022, which is a delta of about $0.12 per share.
We also expect total sales growth to exceed 12% for the full year ending July 31, 2022, which is inclusive of both organic sales growth as well as sales growth from the recently completed acquisitions.
We did just buy back $18.9 million worth of shares last quarter, and we'll continue to look for acquisitions where the price is right and the strategic fit is clear.
Slide number 13 outlines the first quarter financial results for our Identification Solutions business.
IDS sales increased 25.4% to $248.6 million.
This very robust sales growth is comprised of organic growth of 13.2%, acquisition growth of 11.6% and an increase of 0.6% from foreign currency translation.
Segment profit as a percentage of sales was 19.6%, which was down from 20.3% last year.
However, if you exclude the sizable increase in amortization that Aaron mentioned, then segment profit as a percentage of sales would have increased from 21% of sales to 21.1% of sales, so an increase of about 10 basis points compared to the first quarter of last year.
Regionally, organic sales in Asia were strong this quarter with growth of over 15% compared to the first quarter of last year.
This is the fourth consecutive quarter of Asian organic sales growth in excess of 10%.
Organic sales were also up more than 15% in EMEA despite several lockdowns continuing throughout most of the first quarter.
We also had organic sales growth of nearly 12% in the Americas.
We saw growth in all product lines and geographies throughout the quarter and we were especially pleased with the bounce back in our healthcare product line where organic sales growth increased approximately 11%.
Moving to slide number 14, you'll find a summary of Workplace Safety financial performance.
WPS sales declined 7.8%, which consisted of an organic sales decline of 8.6% and an increase from foreign currency of 0.8%.
Our WPS sales were $72.9 million this quarter, which were above the pre-pandemic sales experienced in the first quarter of fiscal 2020.
During the pandemic, our Australian business grew organic sales over 10% in last year's first quarter.
All in, these incremental investments were approximately $2.5 million.
In addition to these investments, our WPS business also experienced gross margin compression as a result of raw materials, freight and wage inflation as I mentioned.
WPS' segment profit was $2.3 million, compared to $8 million in last year's first quarter.
We're in a net cash position even after making three acquisitions toward the end of last year and returning more than $30 million to our shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends this quarter.

Summary:
Sales in the first quarter were $321.5 million, which was an increase of 16% when compared to the same quarter last year, and GAAP pre-tax earnings increased 5.8% to $44.7 million.
GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.67, which was an increase of 4.7% over last year's first quarter.
As Michael mentioned, we're seeing inflationary pressures, and we're finding it difficult to fill open manufacturing roles.
As I mentioned, our GAAP earnings per share was $0.67 this quarter compared to $0.64 in last year's first quarter, an increase of 4.7%.
Our full-year diluted earnings per share guidance, excluding amortization remains unchanged at a range of $3.12 to $3.32 per share.
On a GAAP basis, our full-year diluted earnings per share guidance also remains unchanged at a range of $2.90 to $3.10 per share.
In addition to these investments, our WPS business also experienced gross margin compression as a result of raw materials, freight and wage inflation as I mentioned.