Our sales were up $41 million or 17% with both divisions contributing record numbers.
Engine Management was up 15% and was far and away our largest fourth quarter on record.
Temperature Controls also had a record, up 30% though the fourth quarter is the lowest sales period of this highly seasonal category.
At mid-year we were down nearly 15% due to the sales drop off and the pandemic.
After the first half our earnings from continuing operations were down almost 37% and with the record third and fourth quarters, we ended the year up 16%.
At the time of the announcement we knew that the annualized impact was an approximate loss of $140 million that we had yet to finalize any details including timing.
We now know that this business is phasing out over the course of the first quarter of this year during which we expect approximately $20 million in revenue and it will then be totally absent beginning in the second quarter and thereafter.
Included in this is our recent Pollak acquisition of which 75% is OE and largely commercial vehicle.
As of now about 30% of what we sell out of these JVs is for in-country OE.
Among them average age of vehicles has hit a record 12 years.
We endured wild demand swings dropping 30% to 40% followed by positive swings up 10% to 20%.
Another supply chain challenge has been the logistics of moving product primarily from the Far East to the U.S. Fortunately we have a very large manufacturing footprint in North America and Poland and are less exposed than others who source a 100% from Asia.
For over 100 years SMP has nurtured a culture focused on all our stakeholders including our employees, customers and our communities.
Looking first at the P&L, consolidated net sales in Q4 2020 were $282.7 million, up $41.5 million or 17.2% versus Q4 last year.
Our consolidated net sales for the full year were $1.13 billion finishing down just 0.8% after recovering in the last half of the year as Eric noted earlier.
Looking at it by segment, Engine Management net sales in Q4 excluding Wire and Cable sales were $193.5 million, up $26.2 million versus the same quarter of last year.
This 15.7% increase was driven mainly by catching up on a large order backlog we've carried into the fourth quarter that stemmed from the sharp rebound in business activity after COVID lockdowns were lifted.
For the full year, Engine Management's net sales were down 2% to $691.7 million, a strong second half volume helped offset the pandemic induced declines we saw earlier in the year and brought the segment's full year sales to a level just slightly below 2019.
Wire and Cable net sales in Q4 were $38.3 million, up $3.7 million or 10.6% but for the full year were relatively flat finishing up 0.6% at a $144 million.
While the Wire and Cable business performed very well in 2020, the business remains in secular decline and we believe sales will be lower by 6% to 8% on an annual basis.
Our Temperature Control net sales in Q4 2020 were $47.7 million, up 30% versus the fourth quarter last year driven by an extended selling season as weather stayed warm well into the fourth quarter across most of the U.S. Like Engine Management, Temp Controls full year sales were more in line with last year ending the year up 1.3% at $282 million as the strong seasonal sales helped the segment finish slightly ahead of 2019.
Looking now at gross margins, our consolidated gross margin in Q4 2020 was 33.3% versus 30.2% last year, up 3.1 points and for the full year it was 29.8% versus 29.2% last year, up 0.6 points.
Looking at the segments, fourth quarter gross margin for Engine Management was 33%, up 2.4 points from Q4 last year.
And for Temperature Control was 30%, an increase of 7.3 points from 22.7% from last year.
Engine Management gross margin was up 0.5 points to 30.1% while Temp Control was up 1.5 points to 26.7%.
Moving now to SG&A expenses, our consolidated SG&A expenses in Q4 were $61 million ending at 21.6% of sales versus 22.5% last year.
For the full year, SG&A spending was $224.7 million, down $10 million at 19.9% of net sales versus 20.6% last year.
Consolidated operating income before restructuring and integration expenses and other income net in Q4 2020 was $33.2 million or 11.7% of net sales, up 4 full points from Q4 2019 and for the full year it was 9.9% of sales, up 1.4 points from last year.
As we note on our GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation of operating income, our performance result in fourth quarter 2020 diluted earnings per share of $1.08 versus $0.59 last year and for the full year diluted earnings per share of $3.61 versus $3.10 last year.
Turning now to the balance sheet, accounts receivable at the end of the quarter were $198 million, up $62.5 million from December 2019 with the increase over last year due both to higher sales in the fourth quarter and management of our supply chain factoring arrangements.
Inventory levels finished the quarter at $345.5 million, down $22.7 million from December 2019 with the decrease from last year mainly reflecting the sharp recovery in sales we experienced in the second half of the year after having lower production levels earlier in the year.
Our cash flow statement reflects cash generated from operations for the year of $97.9 million as compared to a generation of $76.9 million last year.
The $21 million improvement was driven by an increase in our operating income as noted earlier but also by changes in working capital.
During the year we continued to invest in our business and used $17.8 million of cash for capital expenditures which was more than the $16.2 million used in 2019.
Financing activities included $11.2 million of dividends paid and $13.5 million paid for repurchases of our common stock.
Financing activities also included $46.7 million of payments on our revolving credit facilities.
We finished the year with total outstanding borrowings of $10 million and available capacity under our revolving credit facility of $237 million.
To that end our Board of Directors has approved the quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share on common stock outstanding, which is payable on March 1.
Further, our Board has also authorized an additional $20 million common stock repurchase plan.
This new authorization is on top of the $6.5 million remaining under our existing plan and when added together will allow us to repurchase up to 26.5 million of additional shares.
While gross margins will vary across the quarters we expect full year 2021 gross margins for Engine to be 29%-plus.
For our Temp Control segment we continue to target gross margins of 26%-plus for the full year in 2021.
Looking at our SG&A cost in 2021, we expect expenses to be in the range of $52 million to $56 million each quarter.

Summary:
Looking first at the P&L, consolidated net sales in Q4 2020 were $282.7 million, up $41.5 million or 17.2% versus Q4 last year.
As we note on our GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation of operating income, our performance result in fourth quarter 2020 diluted earnings per share of $1.08 versus $0.59 last year and for the full year diluted earnings per share of $3.61 versus $3.10 last year.