On behalf of all of those at Spectrum Brands, I'm particularly pleased to report that full year fiscal '21 total Company sales were $4.614 billion, an increase of $650 million over the period a year ago.
Adjusted EBITDA was $689.2 million, increasing $109 million over the period a year ago and our adjusted diluted earnings per share was $6.53.
In addition to the tuck-in acquisitions in our Global Pet Care unit and our Home & Garden business, as we previously disclosed, we have entered into an agreement to sell our HHI business for $4.3 billion in cash to ASSA ABLOY.
Also, from a capital allocation perspective, we did repurchase 1.6 million shares of our common stock for approximately $125.8 million.
Total pro forma Spectrum Brands results were in line with our earnings framework of mid-teen top line growth with revenue actually accelerating 16.4%, and we delivered adjusted EBITDA growth in the high teens at 18.8% growth.
We also delivered adjusted free cash flow of $273 million as compared to our earnings framework of $260 million to $280 million.
We are extremely pleased to report that we grew revenue by $650 million this fiscal year, and we grew our adjusted EBITDA by $109 million, delivering on the earnings framework we communicated to our shareholders in a very challenging operating environment.
Organic sales, excluding the impact of FX and acquisitions, actually decreased 3.4% in the quarter as we compare the results of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, which was an exceptionally high sales quarter due to recovery from COVID-driven supply disruptions in the third quarter of fiscal 2020.
Fourth quarter net income from continuing operations was $6.1 million compared to a loss of $9.6 million during the fourth quarter of last year.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $79 million, resulting from volume growth, pricing actions, our Global Productivity Improvement Program savings and favorable comparisons to last year's variable compensation change from stock to cash payouts.
Our balance sheet remains strong, and we ended the year with net leverage of about 3.5 times, and we have over $760 million in total liquidity.
We were also able to fund $490 million worth of acquisitions during the past year without substantially increasing our leverage ratio.
Also, from a capital allocation perspective, we did repurchased 1.6 million shares of our common stock for approximately $125.8 million.
As we discussed on our HHI transaction announcement call in September, we expect to deleverage our balance sheet to approximately 2.5 times gross leverage upon the closure of the HHI sale.
We have subsequently adjusted our long-term net leverage range to a more conservative 2 to 2.5 times net leverage.
This is after absorbing an expected additional level of inflation of around $230 million to $250 million.
Our goal is to achieve approximately 70% to 80% price coverage for inflation by the end of fiscal 2022, but we do expect our first half margins to be pressured due to the timing of these price increases.
Net sales increased 2.8%.
Excluding the impact of $5.1 million of favorable foreign exchange and acquisition sales of $41.2 million, organic net sales decreased 3.4% as fourth quarter fiscal '20 was an exceptionally high sales quarter for both Global Pet Care and Home & Garden due to recovery after COVID-driven supply disruptions in Q3 fiscal 2020.
Gross profit increased $4 million and gross margins of 34.1% decreased 40 basis points, driven by commodity and freight inflation, partially offset by favorable pricing, mix and improved productivity from the Company's Global Productivity Improvement Program.
SG&A expense of $218.2 million increased 8.8% at 28.8% of net sales, with the dollar increase driven by acquisitions, higher marketing investments and inflation.
Operating income declined from $30.5 million to a loss of $4 million, driven by higher restructuring and transaction-related expenses.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share decreased 2.6% due to the decline in operating income from higher SG&A.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 8.5% primarily driven by volume growth from acquisitions, as well as productivity improvements and positive pricing, partially offsetting margin pressure from commodity and freight inflation.
Recall that we had a change in our incentive compensation payout methodology during Q4 of last year that resulted in a reduction of stock-based compensation expense and consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $12.7 million during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020.
Q4 interest expense from continuing operations of $20.1 million decreased $4.2 million.
Cash taxes during the quarter of $6.3 million were $1.1 million lower than last year.
Depreciation and amortization from continuing operations of $29.6 million was $2.9 million higher than the prior year.
Separately, share and incentive-based compensation increased by $8.2 million from last year to $7.5 million driven by a change to incentive compensation payout methodology in last year's fourth quarter, which resulted in a reduction of stock-based comp expense for Q4 and the full year in fiscal 2020.
Cash payments for transactions were $6 million, down from $6.2 million last year.
Restructuring and related payments in the fourth quarter were $13.6 million versus $10.3 million last year.
The Company had a cash balance of $188 million and approximately $575 million available on its $600 million cash flow revolver.
Debt outstanding was approximately $2.5 billion, consisting of approximately $2 billion of senior unsecured notes, nearly $400 million in term loans and just over $100 million of finance, leases and other obligations.
Additionally, net leverage was 3.5 times at the end of the fiscal 2021.
Capital expenditures were $23.2 million in the quarter versus $16.5 million last year.
Net sales increased 14.3%.
Excluding the impact of $49.5 million of favorable foreign exchange and acquisition sales of $122.7 million, organic net sales increased 7.8%, as we experienced growth across all businesses with double-digit organic growth in our Home & Personal Care business.
Gross profit increased $157 million and gross margins of 34.5% increased 100 basis points, driven by favorable pricing, mix and improved productivity from the Company's GPIP program partially offset by commodity and freight inflation.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 21% primarily driven by volume growth, including acquisitions, as well as productivity improvements and positive pricing, partially offset by margin pressure from commodity and freight inflation.
We currently expect mid-to-high single digit reported net sales growth in 2022, with foreign exchange expected to have a slightly positive impact based upon current rates.
This includes continued benefits from our GPIP program and approximately eight months of results from the recent Rejuvenate transaction, which, last fiscal year, generated about $66 million of full year revenue.
EBITDA is expected to grow despite incremental inflation headwinds of $230 million to $250 million, which are mostly offset by annualization of current pricing actions and planned further price increases, as well as additional productivity actions.
Depreciation and amortization is expected to be between $120 million and $130 million, including stock-based comp of approximately $25 million to $30 million.
Full year interest expense is expected to be between $80 million and $90 million, including approximately $5 million of non-cash items.
Restructuring and transaction-related cash spending is expected to be between $55 million and $60 million.
Capital expenditures are expected to be between $95 million and $105 million.
We ended fiscal '21 with approximately $725 million of usable federal NOLs and expect to use substantially all of them to offset the gain on the sale of HHI.
Cash taxes are expected to be between $20 million and $30 million.
For adjusted EPS, we use a tax rate of 25% including state taxes.
Regarding our capital allocation strategy, after the closure of the HHI sale, we're targeting a near-term gross leverage target with approximately 2.5 times.
After full deployment of the HHI proceeds, we are targeting 2 to 2.5 times net leverage for our long-term target.
First, GAAP accounting for discontinued operations will allow us to allocate about $40 million to $45 million of interest to discontinued operations for the full year fiscal 2022.
Our actual expected interest expense reduction is about $20 million higher than that on an annual basis after planned debt reductions.
Continuing operations will carry about $20 million higher interest expense than we would expect in fiscal 2023, all else being equal.
Second, as compared to our historical allocation approach to HHI, technical GAAP accounting will not allow us to allocate approximately $20 million of center-led cost to discontinued operations in our GAAP financials.
After the sale closes, we would expect to be reimbursed for these costs under TSAs and our contractual agreements with the buyer for periods ranging from 6 to 24 months depending on the enabling function and region of the world.
Second, continuing operations free cash flow will be reduced by the $20 million of interest that I mentioned earlier.
Third, we expect heavier than normal investments and capital expenditures, primarily due to our investments in our new S/4 Hana SAP upgrade program of about $30 million to $40 million, as well as heavier cash spend in restructuring and acquisition and integration costs due to the sale of HHI, the S/4 Hana program, as well as the completion of the Global Pet Care DC transition in the US.
Reported and organic net sales increased 2.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Adjusted EBITDA decreased 36.1% to $14.5 million.
Reported net sales grew 9.1%, while organic net sales declined just under 1% due to six fewer shipping days in Q4 of fiscal '21 versus fiscal '20, as well as impacts from supply chain constraints.
Adjusted EBITDA grew 7.4% driven primarily by the impacts of acquisitions.
Fourth-quarter reported net sales decreased 7.3% and adjusted EBITDA decreased 19.4%.
However, the full year reported net sales increased over 10% and the adjusted EBITDA increased 10.6%, closing a very successful year for this business.
Fourth-quarter sales were 28% ahead of a more normal Q4 fiscal '19, driven by organic growth from strong consumer demand and continued market share gains.
Our market data indicates that during Q4, we had double digit POS growth and in the 2021 season, we increased our overall leading market share position by an estimated 50 basis points.
We are reaffirming our gross savings target of $200 million of savings by the end of fiscal 2022.
Our teams have already captured over $175 million of gross savings, since the program inception and this has helped us offset some of the adverse impacts of tariffs and inflation.
And adjusting for continuing operations only, the savings are about $150 million in total with approximately $135 million achieved through the end of fiscal 2021.
First, our fourth quarter financial results conclude a very successful fiscal '21 for us, where we saw a 14% growth in sales and a 21% growth in adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations.
Secondly, we are driving a strategic shift for Spectrum Brands with the sale of our HHI business for $4.3 billion.
We expect to deleverage the balance sheet to approximately 2.5 times gross leverage upon the closure of the HHI sale, and we have adjusted our long-term average leverage target range to a more conservative 2 to 2.5 times net leverage.
In addition, we expect to have approximately $2 billion of capital to deploy and to maintain this target leverage range.

Summary:
We currently expect mid-to-high single digit reported net sales growth in 2022, with foreign exchange expected to have a slightly positive impact based upon current rates.