Today P&G reported results for the fourth quarter and full 2021 fiscal year. This year we grew markets and drove top-line growth, bottom-line growth and strong cash generation. Organic sales grew 6% for the fiscal year. Growth was broad-based – each of our 10 product categories grew or held organic sales. E-commerce organic sales were up 35% for the year. Market share grew globally, across many of our categories and country combinations – and in the past quarter in the U.S. reached one of the highest absolute value shares in the last 20 years.
David Taylor, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer said, “We delivered another year of strong results with balanced top and bottom-line growth and strong cash generation, exceeding each of our in-going targets. We built strong momentum prior to the pandemic and have strengthened our position further. As we look forward to fiscal 2022, we expect to continue to grow top-line and bottom-line and to deliver another year of strong cash return to shareholders despite a challenging cost and operating environment.”
Core earnings per share grew 11% for the year. Currency neutral Core EPS was also up 11%. We increased our dividend by 10% during the year and returned $19 billion dollars of value to shareowners – $8 billion in dividends, and $11 billion in share repurchase.
As we continue to manage through the COVID crisis, we’ll remain focused on the three priorities that have been guiding our near-term actions and choices.
- Our first priority in this crisis is to ensure the health and safety of our P&G colleagues around the world.
- Second, we’re maximizing the availability of products that help people and their families with their health, hygiene and cleaning needs.
- Our third priority is supporting the communities, relief agencies and people who are on the frontlines of this global pandemic.
Serving each of these three priorities are our strategic choices:
- A portfolio of daily use products, many providing health, hygiene and cleaning benefits in categories where performance plays a significant role in brand choice.
- Superior, science-based products delivered with superior packaging, retail execution, consumer communication and value…in all price tiers where we compete.
- Cost and cash productivity, up and and down the income statement and across the balance sheet to fund investments in superiority, manage macro headwinds and build profit margin.
- A mindset of constructive disruption. A willingness to change, adapt, and create new trends and technologies that will shape our industry for the future. In this environment, that agility and constructive disruption mindset are even more important.
- A more empowered, agile and accountable organization with little overlap or redundancy, flowing to new demands, seamlessly supporting each other to deliver our priorities - around the world.
Credit for our results goes to the people of P&G, who have done outstanding work in a challenging and volatile environment, and are focused on delighting consumers, winning with customers, and delivering balanced growth and value creation.
You can read the full details in today’s news release. Slides with more detail and the webcast replay of earnings results are available at www.pginvestor.com/event. And you can learn more about P&G’s robust COVID-19 response at www.pg.com/covid19.
See www.pginvestor.com/event for P&G's full Q4 and FY 2021 earnings release issued July 30, 2021, the associated webcast presentation, definitions of non-GAAP measures and reconciliation to the most closely related GAAP measure, as well as cautionary information on forward-looking statements, which are based on current assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially.
