Among them: a continued high level of consumer engagement that led to a second straight year of Q1 profitability in the U.S. Consumer segment, with strong momentum as we ended the calendar year; the announcement of a third pricing action in the consumer business that will take effect in the second half of the year; an increase in our full year sales guidance for the segment; some moderation, finally, in commodity prices; continued restrengthening of our supply chain and has us well positioned to meet the demands for the upcoming season; restructuring efforts in Hawthorne that will make the business even stronger; and plenty of activity, including two more Hawthorne acquisitions in what is the most robust M&A pipeline we've had in 25 years.
As most of you know, my brothers and sisters and I own roughly 25% of the company.
As part of our recent meeting with our advisors, we discussed the financial return on the family's investment since the merger of Scotts and Miracle-Gro in 1994.
For example, Q1 volume is down from last year, but up 107% over fiscal '20 and significantly higher when compared to the average in the four years before COVID.
The year-over-year gross margin rate is down 2%, but the segment's margin is up more than 1,300 basis points compared to the average of the four years prior to COVID.
On average, the bottom line result was $50 million better than in each of the four years prior to COVID.
In Q1, POS, as measured by consumer purchases at our largest retailers, was up 3% in units.
It was up 9% in dollars.
Both numbers were against a plus-40 comp a year ago.
But if you look at POS units over the past four quarters, we're up 22% compared to two years ago.
We've increased our sales guidance for the U.S. consumer business to a range of minus 2 to plus 2% on a full year basis, an increase of 200 basis points from our previous range.
Also, we have communicated to our retail partners another price increase for the second half that will impact our full year results by 1%.
As part of this restructuring effort, we're also closing the manufacturing facility for HydroLogic, which we acquired last year.
The restructuring has resulted in the elimination of roughly 200 positions.
Total company sales were down 24%, against a 105% comp a year ago.
U.S. consumer sales were down 16% on a 147% comparison.
And Hawthorne was down 38%, against 71% growth a year ago.
But as Jim said, were less than 10% of the way through the year, and it's way too early to predict what will happen in the spring.
The supply chain challenges we've mentioned previously are difficult to precisely quantify, but we believe they caused around 5% of the downward pressure in the quarter.
The adjusted rate was down 570 basis points in the quarter driven by the year-over-year decline in volume and its impact on manufacturing, distribution, and other fixed costs.
Commodity prices were also a headwind in the quarter but offset by a 400 basis point improvement from pricing actions.
The result in the quarter was more than 600 basis points better than in fiscal '20 and more than 850 basis points better than fiscal '19.
As I look at the balance of the year, we are maintaining our gross margin rate guidance for a decline of 100 to 150 basis points.
In total, we are 70% locked on commodities for the year, which is slightly behind normal.
We would normally have all of our costs locked right now on pallets, but we're only at 30% because vendors are not currently entering into long-term contracts due to the volatility of lumber prices.
On everything else, we're actually in good shape, including urea, where we're nearly 80% locked for the year.
SG&A was down 2% after a sharp increase last year.
Recall that our guidance calls for SG&A to decline up to 6% for the year, and it's an area we're keeping an eye on as we move closer to the season.
The only other issue on the P&L that merits your attention is the $7 million loss on the equity income line, which is related to our 50% ownership in Bonnie.
On the bottom line, our seasonal loss on a GAAP basis was $0.90 a share, compared with income of $0.43 last year.
Adjusted earnings, which excludes restructuring, impairment, and nonrecurring charges, was a loss of $0.88, compared with earnings a year ago of $0.39.
We expect those actions to result in a restructuring charge of up to $5 million in the second quarter.
Let me briefly touch on the balance sheet, specifically focusing on inventories, which are up about $590 million from last year.
And finally, about 25% of this increase is due to the higher input costs we've been experiencing over the past year.
We are still planning for capex to be approximately $200 million for the year as we continue to improve our supply chain and invest in our e-commerce infrastructure.
Since fiscal 2019, it's up around 40%, and we've pushed our capacity to its limit.
We are currently budgeting slightly more than $200 million for future transactions over the balance of the year.
In terms of returning cash to shareholders, we repurchased $125 million of our shares in Q1 and have a 10b5-1 in place for another $50 million in our Q2.
We currently do not have a 10b5-1 in place for the second half of the year and would expect that any share repurchase activity during that period would occur in the open market.
We were at 3.3 times at the end of Q1.

Summary:
Among them: a continued high level of consumer engagement that led to a second straight year of Q1 profitability in the U.S. Consumer segment, with strong momentum as we ended the calendar year; the announcement of a third pricing action in the consumer business that will take effect in the second half of the year; an increase in our full year sales guidance for the segment; some moderation, finally, in commodity prices; continued restrengthening of our supply chain and has us well positioned to meet the demands for the upcoming season; restructuring efforts in Hawthorne that will make the business even stronger; and plenty of activity, including two more Hawthorne acquisitions in what is the most robust M&A pipeline we've had in 25 years.
As part of this restructuring effort, we're also closing the manufacturing facility for HydroLogic, which we acquired last year.
Total company sales were down 24%, against a 105% comp a year ago.
The supply chain challenges we've mentioned previously are difficult to precisely quantify, but we believe they caused around 5% of the downward pressure in the quarter.
On the bottom line, our seasonal loss on a GAAP basis was $0.90 a share, compared with income of $0.43 last year.
Adjusted earnings, which excludes restructuring, impairment, and nonrecurring charges, was a loss of $0.88, compared with earnings a year ago of $0.39.
We expect those actions to result in a restructuring charge of up to $5 million in the second quarter.