For over 43 years, with the last five years as CFO, Jim has been a trusted partner to me and many of my predecessors.
Jim helped complete over $5 billion in strategic acquisitions, including Justin's, Fontanini, [Indecipherable] Columbus, Sadler's, and our largest acquisition ever, Planters.
Additionally, Jim has overseen the distribution of over $2 billion in dividends to our shareholders.
We achieved record sales in fiscal 2021, exceeding both $10 billion and $11 billion in sales for the first time.
For the full year, sales were $11.4 billion, representing 19% sales growth.
On an organic basis, sales increased 14%.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the full year increased 4% to $1.73, in spite of inflationary pressure and supply chain challenges.
Diluted earnings per share was $1.66.
Sales increased 43% and organic sales increased 32%.
Volume increased 14% and organic volume increased 8%.
Compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, all channels grew by over 25%, driven by strong demand and pricing action in almost every category.
Our foodservice teams across the organization posted 72% sales growth for the quarter, 33% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
This followed second quarter growth of 28% and third quarter growth 45%.
We also saw a strong recovery in our noncommercial segments, including college and university and K through 12 institutions.
Retail and international sales both increased 34% and deli sales increased 24%.
From a bottom line perspective, fourth quarter earnings were a record $0.51 per share, a 19% increase compared to 2020, an acceleration in our top line results and the addition of the Planters business led to the earnings growth.
This is a similar to the successful strategy we have executed in Refrigerated Foods over the past 15 years.
As a result, we will close the Benson Avenue plant located in Willmar, Minnesota in the first half of fiscal 2022.
Finally, we made additional progress on optimizing our pork supply chain by signing a new five-year raw material supply agreement with our supplier in Fremont, Nebraska.
This new agreement more closely matches our pork supply with the needs of our value-added businesses, while simultaneously reducing the amount of commodity pork lease out.
This agreement should result in a reduction of approximately $350 million of commodity fresh pork sales at very low margin.
The contract will be effective at the start of calendar year 2022.
Looking at fiscal 2022, we expect net sales to be between $11.7 billion and $12.5 billion, and for diluted earnings per share to be between a $1.87 and $2.03 per share.
The company achieved record fourth quarter and full year sales of $3.5 billion and $11.4 billion respectively.
Organic sales increased 32% for the quarter and 14% for the full year.
Planters contributed $411 million in sales for the full year.
Earnings before taxes increased 26% for the fourth quarter, strong results in Refrigerated International and the inclusion of Planters led to the strong finish to the year despite ongoing inflationary pressures.
Earnings before taxes increased 1% for the full year compared to fiscal 2020.
Diluted earnings per share of $0.51 was a record.
This was a 19% increase over last year.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the full year was $1.73, a 4% increase from last year.
Diluted earnings per share was $1.66.
SG&A as a percentage of sales was 7.5% compared to 7.9% last year.
Advertising investments increased 12% compared to last year.
Segment margins expanded from last quarter by 136 basis points to 10.7% with increases in each segment.
The effective tax rate for the year was 19.3% compared to 18.5% last year.
We paid our 373rd consecutive quarterly dividend effective November 15th at an annual rate of $0.98 per share.
We also announced a 6% increase for 2022, marking the 56th consecutive year of dividend increases.
During 2021, the Company repurchased 500,000 shares for $20 million.
Capital expenditures were $232 million.
The Company ended 2021 with $3.3 billion in debt or approximately 2.5 times EBITDA, although no mandatory debt repayments are required until 2024.
We remain committed to maintaining our investment grade rating and deleveraging to 1.5 times to 2 times EBITDA by 2023.
The USDA composite cut out averaged 33% higher compared to last year, supported by strong demand for pork and historically low cold storage levels.
Hog prices averaged 62% higher than last year, but were down 27% compared to the third quarter.
The latest estimates from the USDA indicate pork production for the year to decreased 2% compared to 2020, and remain relatively flat in 2022.
The cost increased over 60% from last year in the fourth quarter.
We anticipate growth from all four segments, driven by continued elevated demand for our products, the impact from our pricing actions, improve production throughput, new capacity for key categories such as pizza toppings and dry sausage, and the full-year contribution of the Planters business.
The Company's target for capital expenditures in 2022 is $310 million.
Pivoting to innovation, we achieved our 15% goal in 2021.
Taking all of these factors into account, as Jim has mentioned, we are setting our full year sales guidance at $11.7 billion to $12.5 billion and our diluted earnings per share guidance at $1.87 to $2.03.
Additionally, this guidance reflects the Benson Avenue facility closure, our a new pork raw material supply agreements and and effective tax rate between 20.5% and 22.5%.
Fiscal 2022 will be 52 weeks.
We're taking purposeful actions to transform our Company as we embark on our most ambitious corporate responsibility journey yet, our 20 by 30 challenge, which is certainly important from an ESG standpoint.

Summary:
For the full year, sales were $11.4 billion, representing 19% sales growth.
From a bottom line perspective, fourth quarter earnings were a record $0.51 per share, a 19% increase compared to 2020, an acceleration in our top line results and the addition of the Planters business led to the earnings growth.
As a result, we will close the Benson Avenue plant located in Willmar, Minnesota in the first half of fiscal 2022.
Finally, we made additional progress on optimizing our pork supply chain by signing a new five-year raw material supply agreement with our supplier in Fremont, Nebraska.
This new agreement more closely matches our pork supply with the needs of our value-added businesses, while simultaneously reducing the amount of commodity pork lease out.
This agreement should result in a reduction of approximately $350 million of commodity fresh pork sales at very low margin.
The contract will be effective at the start of calendar year 2022.
Looking at fiscal 2022, we expect net sales to be between $11.7 billion and $12.5 billion, and for diluted earnings per share to be between a $1.87 and $2.03 per share.
The company achieved record fourth quarter and full year sales of $3.5 billion and $11.4 billion respectively.
Diluted earnings per share of $0.51 was a record.
We anticipate growth from all four segments, driven by continued elevated demand for our products, the impact from our pricing actions, improve production throughput, new capacity for key categories such as pizza toppings and dry sausage, and the full-year contribution of the Planters business.
Taking all of these factors into account, as Jim has mentioned, we are setting our full year sales guidance at $11.7 billion to $12.5 billion and our diluted earnings per share guidance at $1.87 to $2.03.