Jerome Pedretti, who has been with Pentair for nearly 15 years, will lead our Industrial & Flow Technologies segment.
While we formally withdrew our quarter and annual guidance at the end of March due to a lack of visibility, we are planning for significantly reduced demand throughout the remainder of 2020.
Consumer Solutions is a $1.6 billion segment comprised of our pool and our water solutions businesses.
As you can see on this slide, Consumer Solutions is approximately 75% residential, and approximately 75% of the revenue serves the installed aftermarket base.
There are approximately 5.5 million pools installed in the ground.
And we expect the aftermarket business, which represents roughly 80% of our pool business, to see some short term softness, but not to the extent that we might expect will occur in the new pool construction and remodeling parts of the business.
Industrial & Flow Technologies, or IFT, is a $1.3 billion segment comprised of our residential and irrigation flow, commercial and infrastructure flow and industrial filtration businesses.
IFT does, however, generate approximately 65% of sales from the installed aftermarket base.
It is hard to leave after 12 years with Pentair, but I believe the company is well positioned and will emerge from this current situation stronger as a leading water treatment company.
Materials is our biggest cost at approximately 40% of sales and is the one piece of our structure that is truly variable.
We ended the quarter with $169 million in cash and $326 million available under our revolver.
We ended the first quarter with a leverage ratio of 2.1 times, which is well below our 3.7 times covenant.
Given the dramatically changing environment, we have lowered our capital expenditures forecast by over 10% for the year.
During the first quarter, we repurchased $115 million of our shares, but we suspended the buyback during the quarter and are currently choosing to remain on the sidelines as we focus on our strong liquidity.
While we covered our liquidity position on the previous slide, we would point out that we have a healthy mix between fixed and variable debt.
Our average borrowing rate for the quarter was a very respectable 2.6%, and we ended the quarter with 14.4% ROIC.
For the first quarter, overall sales grew 3%, and core sales also increased 3%.
Segment income grew 13%, return on sales expanded 140 basis points, and adjusted earnings per share increased 21%.
Below the line, we saw an adjusted tax rate of 16%, net interest other expense of $7.5 million, and our average shares in the quarter were $168.7 million.
Consumer Solutions saw sales increased 9% with core sales growing 7%.
The segment had strong segment income performance growing 13% year-over-year, and ROS expanded 80 basis points to 21.8%.
IFT reported a 3% decline in sales with core growth down 2%.
Segment income was a positive story with a 9% year-over-year increase, and ROS improved 150 basis points to 13.9%.

Summary:
While we formally withdrew our quarter and annual guidance at the end of March due to a lack of visibility, we are planning for significantly reduced demand throughout the remainder of 2020.
We ended the quarter with $169 million in cash and $326 million available under our revolver.
While we covered our liquidity position on the previous slide, we would point out that we have a healthy mix between fixed and variable debt.