Last evening, H.B. Fuller reported strong fourth quarter results, including 15% year-over-year revenue growth, a $134 million of EBITDA at the high end of our guidance and $1.09 of adjusted EPS.
Organic revenue was up 15% versus 2020 and increased 20% compared with the pre-COVID fourth quarter of 2019.
We also saw significant margin recovery with gross margin up 340 basis points versus the third quarter as a result of decisive pricing actions taken during the year.
And we continue to pay down debt in the quarter to substantially reduce our debt-to-EBITDA ratio to 3.3 times from 4.1 times a year ago.
Our global team of 6,500 employees again demonstrated outstanding operational execution in this environment.
In 2021, we implemented over $450 million of annualized price adjustments overcoming the annualized value of raw material cost inflation.
In 2019, we reorganized into three global business units centered on 30 end markets, each focused on the needs of customers within that segment.
Fuller roofing adhesives led the way to a 29% increase in this segment sales over the fourth quarter last year as we help customers deal with labor shortages.
Strong performance continued in our hygiene, health and consumables segment, where organic revenues increased by 13% year over year with double-digit growth in most of our end markets and very strong results in packaging applications, tapes and labels, tissue and towel and health and beauty.
HHC organic revenues also increased 18% versus the pre-coated fourth quarter of 2019, demonstrating strong underlying consumer demand and share gains.
HHC segment EBITDA margin of 13.6% reflected the absorption of significantly higher raw material costs, as well as increased variable compensation compared with last year, offset by strong pricing.
EBITDA margin was up 160 basis points sequentially versus the third quarter, as strong pricing gains are driving higher margins as we exit the year.
Construction adhesives had an extremely strong quarter, with organic revenues up over 29% versus the prior year and up 31% compared with Q4 of 2019.
Construction adhesives EBITDA margin of 16.3% increased significantly year over year, up by 390 basis points.
CA's EBITDA margin also improved by 390 basis points over the third quarter of this year, driven by volume leverage and pricing gains.
Organic revenue increased 13% year on year, led by strong double-digit growth in new energy, recreational vehicles, insulated glass, woodworking, technical textiles and footwear.
Engineering adhesives EBITDA margin remained strong at over 15% and up slightly versus Q3 on strong pricing execution, offset by higher raw material costs and higher variable compensation expense.
We have over $100 million in pricing actions taking effect in Q1, and we will take whatever pricing actions are necessary in 2022 to fully offset raw material cost increases and enable us to restore margins.
For the quarter, revenue was up 15.4% versus the same period last year.
Currency had a positive impact of 0.5%.
Adjusting for currency, organic revenue was up 14.9%, with volume up 1.4% and pricing having a favorable impact of 13.5% year on year in the quarter.
Adjusted gross profit margin was 27.1%, down 40 basis points versus last year as pricing more than offset raw material increases from a dollar standpoint in the quarter, but not from a margin standpoint.
However, gross profit margin was up 340 basis points versus the third quarter of this year, driven by pricing execution.
For the full year, adjusted SG&A as a percentage of revenue was 17.2%, down by 130 basis points versus 2020.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of $134 million was up 9% versus last year and at the high end of our planning assumptions for the quarter, reflecting strong top-line performance, driven by good pricing execution and construction adhesives market share gains.
Adjusted earnings per share were $1.09, up versus the fourth quarter of 2020, despite a higher tax rate in Q4 2021, which drove a negative year-on-year impact of about $0.10 per share.
Full year organic revenues grew 15% versus fiscal 2020.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 15% year on year, and adjusted earnings per share was up 22%.
And we continued to reduce debt in the quarter, paying off about $40 million of debt driving our net debt to EBITDA to 3.3 times as of the end of the year.
Based on what we know today, we anticipate full year double-digit organic revenue growth in the range of 10% to 15%, and we estimate that currency will have a negative impact on revenue of about 2% to 3%.
We expect adjusted EBITDA to be between $515 million and $535 million, representing a 10% to 15% year-on-year increase, as pricing leverage and operational efficiencies more than offset higher raw material costs.
We expect our 2022 core tax rate to be between 27% and 29%, compared to our 2021 core tax rate of about 27%.
We expect full year interest expense to be between $65 million and $70 million and the average diluted share count to be about 55 million shares.
These assumptions would result in full year adjusted earnings per share in the range of $4 to $4.25.
We estimate that the extra week will have a favorable impact on full year revenues of approximately 2% compared with full year 2021 and a favorable impact on full year EBITDA of approximately $8 million to $10 million versus 2021, all occurring in the fourth quarter.
Taking the extra week into consideration, as well as the typical seasonality of the business, we expect to realize 20% to 21% of full year EBITDA dollars in the first quarter.
In 2022, we are positioned to again deliver double-digit organic revenue growth and nearly 20% earnings per share growth as we build upon the momentum we created in the last couple of years.
Full year 2021 organic revenue increased by 15%, led by 10% volume growth and strong contributions from pricing.
Full year EBITDA dollars also increased 15% as we mitigated bottom-line impacts from the extreme raw material inflation.
In 2010, we were a $1.3 billion company with a sizable portion of our sales in non-specified applications.
In 2021, we're a $3.3 billion company with less than 10% of our sales in non-specified applications.

Summary:
Last evening, H.B. Fuller reported strong fourth quarter results, including 15% year-over-year revenue growth, a $134 million of EBITDA at the high end of our guidance and $1.09 of adjusted EPS.
We have over $100 million in pricing actions taking effect in Q1, and we will take whatever pricing actions are necessary in 2022 to fully offset raw material cost increases and enable us to restore margins.
For the quarter, revenue was up 15.4% versus the same period last year.
Adjusted earnings per share were $1.09, up versus the fourth quarter of 2020, despite a higher tax rate in Q4 2021, which drove a negative year-on-year impact of about $0.10 per share.
Based on what we know today, we anticipate full year double-digit organic revenue growth in the range of 10% to 15%, and we estimate that currency will have a negative impact on revenue of about 2% to 3%.
We expect adjusted EBITDA to be between $515 million and $535 million, representing a 10% to 15% year-on-year increase, as pricing leverage and operational efficiencies more than offset higher raw material costs.
These assumptions would result in full year adjusted earnings per share in the range of $4 to $4.25.
Full year 2021 organic revenue increased by 15%, led by 10% volume growth and strong contributions from pricing.