For the first time our Company exceeded $3 billion in net sales.
We also maintained top line momentum with organic sales growth of 7.3% including growth of nearly 17% in our auto care business.
Auto care further benefited from the expansion in our international markets, reaching $100 million in sales in those markets for the full year.
We also delivered synergies of $62 million for the year, resulting in total synergies from the Spectrum acquisition in excess of $130 million, 30% higher than our initial estimate.
With more consumers selecting our battery brand, we gained 2.2 share point in the last 12 months.
As a result, on a two-year stack basis without e-commerce, the global battery category has grown by 2.9% in value and 3.7% in volume.
In the near term, we will see the category decline as it did in the three months ending August 2021 where it was down 6.9% in value and 5.3% in volume due to comping elevated demand from a year ago.
Our brands outpaced the category, resulting in a 2.2 share point gain versus last year as we increased distribution in the US and internationally with share gains in those markets representing 70% of our total battery revenues.
Over the last five years the auto care category has shown consistent growth, a trend that continued in the latest 13 weeks with category value up 3.5% versus year ago and 16.3% versus 2019.
All of this increased US household penetration to nearly 75% with the resulting buy rate that is up 20% as consumers are buying the category more frequently and spending more per trip.
While the categories are showing resilience, the macro environment in which we are operating is volatile, which leads me to the next important topic around operating costs.
We saw a significant escalation in these costs during the fourth quarter and we expect these headwinds to continue throughout 2022, resulting in over $140 million of increased input costs versus 2021.
In order to mitigate the impact of these costs, we have executed or planned pricing against roughly 85% of our business.
As such, our inventory at the end of fiscal '21 was up 42% versus the prior year.
In fiscal 2022 organic sales will be roughly flat with auto care growth and pricing actions across our businesses, offset by volume declines in battery as we comp prior year elevated demand in the first half of the year.
For the quarter reported revenue grew 40 basis points with organic revenue down less than 1% versus 6% organic growth in the prior-year quarter.
Robust demand and distribution gains in auto care delivered a 11.5% growth in the quarter, which offset the expected decline in battery.
Adjusted gross margin decreased 70 basis points to 37.7%.
The combination of $9 million in synergy benefits and the elimination of $19 million of COVID-related costs from the prior year did not fully offset inflationary cost pressures related to commodities, transportation and labor.
Excluding acquisition and integration costs, SG&A as a percent of net sales was 14.3% versus 15.6% in the prior year.
The absolute dollar decrease of $9.4 million was driven primarily by a reduction in compensation costs.
In the quarter, we realized $9 million in synergies, bringing the total for 2021 to $62 million.
We have delivered over $130 million of synergies related to our battery and auto care acquisitions, well exceeding our initial targets.
Interest expense was $13.4 million lower than the prior-year quarter as we are benefiting from significant refinancing activity over the past 18 months.
During the fourth quarter, we entered into a $75 million accelerated share repurchase program.
Approximately 1.5 million shares were delivered in fiscal 2021 and we expect another 400,000 shares to be delivered in the first quarter of fiscal '22, bringing the total number of shares repurchased under the ASR program to approximately 1.9 million.
Net sales grew 10.1%, including organic sales up 7.3% as we experienced robust growth in both the Americas and International and across all three product categories, batteries, auto care and lighting products.
Adjusted gross margin was down 100 basis points, as higher input costs were partially offset by synergies and the reduction of COVID-related costs incurred in 2020.
Interest expense, benefiting from significant refinancing activity, decreased $33 million.
Adjusted earnings per share increased 51% to $3.48 as higher sales, synergies and lower interest expense more than offset the higher input costs.
And adjusted EBITDA increased 10%.
At the end of 2021, our net debt was approximately $3.2 billion or 5.1 times net debt to credit defined EBITDA with nearly 85% at fixed interest rates, no near-term maturities and an all-in cost of debt below 4%.
Our adjusted free cash flow for 2021 was $203.5 million.
Now turning to our fiscal 2022 outlook.
Organic revenue is expected to be roughly flat with auto care growth and pricing actions across 85% of our businesses, offset by declines in battery as we comp prior year elevated demand in the first two fiscal quarters.
We also expect reported revenue will be negatively impacted by foreign currency headwinds of $20 million to $25 million at current rates.
Last quarter I highlighted the potential for an additional 100 basis points of gross margin headwinds in 2022 if input costs did not improve.
While we expect the absolute dollar amount of these rising costs to be offset by the pricing actions and cost reduction efforts that our team has undertaken, we now project gross margin headwinds of approximately 150 basis points, based on current rates and assumptions.
These inflationary cost pressures, combined with the anticipated volume declines in battery in the first half of the year, are expected to result in adjusted earnings per share in the range of $3 to $3.30 and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $560 million to $590 million.

Summary:
Over the last five years the auto care category has shown consistent growth, a trend that continued in the latest 13 weeks with category value up 3.5% versus year ago and 16.3% versus 2019.
While the categories are showing resilience, the macro environment in which we are operating is volatile, which leads me to the next important topic around operating costs.
In fiscal 2022 organic sales will be roughly flat with auto care growth and pricing actions across our businesses, offset by volume declines in battery as we comp prior year elevated demand in the first half of the year.
Now turning to our fiscal 2022 outlook.
We also expect reported revenue will be negatively impacted by foreign currency headwinds of $20 million to $25 million at current rates.
These inflationary cost pressures, combined with the anticipated volume declines in battery in the first half of the year, are expected to result in adjusted earnings per share in the range of $3 to $3.30 and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $560 million to $590 million.