Good morning and welcome to the virtual webcast of the twenty twenty one Annual Meeting of the Stakeholders of AutoNation. We do not expect any technical difficulties. However, in the event we lose audio or webcast connection and we're unable to provide any updates, please wait ten minutes for resolution. The polls are open. To vote, click on the Vote Here button at the bottom right hand corner of the webcast screen.
The polls will remain open until the conclusion of the matters to be voted on portion of the meeting. I'd now like to introduce and turn the meeting over to AutoNation General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Coleman Edmonds to begin the meeting. Coleman?
Thank you, Mark. During the webcast today, the company may make forward looking statements about our expectations or predictions about the future. Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risks and uncertainties, the company's actual performance and results may differ materially from what is said here today. Please refer to AutoNation's twenty twenty annual report on Form 10 K filed with the SEC on 02/16/2021, for detailed discussions of principal risks and uncertainties that could cause differences and to our subsequent SEC filings for updates. With that, I'll turn the call over to AutoNation's Chief Executive Officer and Director, Mike Jackson, to share a few opening remarks before we call the meeting to order.
Thank you, Coleman. I want to begin by truly thanking all our associates for their tremendous efforts during an unimaginable year. They delivered record results and maintained a strong commitment to our company, customers and communities. Now I'd like to introduce the other members of the Board of Directors who have served with great dedication and distinction. Rick Burdick was elected as Chairman of the Board in February 2021.
Rick has been Director of AutoNation for over twenty five years and most recently served as our Lead Independent Director. Rick serves on our Compensation Committee. David Edelson has served as one of our directors since July 2008 and serves as Chair of our Audit Committee. Mr. Edelson is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Loews Corporation.
Steven Gerard has served as one of our Directors since April 2019. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CBIZ. He also serves on our Audit and Compensation Committees. Robert Grusky has served as one of our directors since June 2006. Mr.
Grusky is the Founder and Managing Member of Hope Capital Management, an investment management firm he founded in February. He also serves on our corporate governance and nominating committee. Norman Jenkins has served as one of our directors since December 2020. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Capstone Development, a privately held commercial and multifamily real estate firm he founded in 02/2009. Prior to launching Capstone, Mr.
Jenkins was a Senior Executive and Corporate Officer of Marriott International. Mr. Jenkins serves on our Audit Committee. Lisa Lutoff Perlo has served as one of our directors since February 2020. Since December 2014, she has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Celebrity Cruises, a multi billion dollar cruise line and wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises.
She serves on our corporate governance and nominating committee. G. Mikan has served as one of our directors since March 2013. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Bright Health Group, a consumer focused health insurance and services business. He chairs our compensation committee.
Jackie Travisano has served as one of our directors since April 2018. Doctor. Travisano serves as Executive Vice President for Business and Finance and Chief Operating Officer of the University of Miami. She chairs our corporate governance and nominating committee. I would now like to move to a couple of our slides that discuss our performance over the past year.
For 2020, our revenue broke through $20,000,000,000 despite the pandemic. Operating income was up 24% to $990,000,000 Adjusted EPS from continuing operations was $7.12 an increase of 56% and adjusted SG and A as a percent of gross profit was significantly improved to 67.2%. And for the first quarter results, we reported for the fourth time in a row an all time record performance, up three times from a year ago with same store revenue and same store gross profit improving 27%. Again, another significant improvement on cost basis taking out eleven twenty basis points reducing SG and A as a percent of gross to 62.7%. We also repurchased 5% of our outstanding shares during the quarter and announced that our development and opening of USA stores continues very well with a target to have 130 USA stores open by the end of twenty twenty six with a target of ultimately achieving retail sales of 1,000,000 units a year.
I now turn it back to Coleman Emmons to call the meeting formally to order.
Thank you, Mike. I now call this annual meeting of stockholders to order. In addition to Mike, the other Director nominees are attending today's meeting through the live webcast. The rules of conduct and procedures are shown at the bottom right corner of the webcast screen. The procedures we follow are simple and designed to ensure that we have a fair and orderly meeting.
As noted, the polls are open. If you have not already voted your shares or wish to change your vote, you may do so by clicking on the Vote Here button at the bottom right corner of the webcast screen. The polls will remain open until the conclusion of the matters to be voted on portion of the meeting. Stockholders may submit questions electronically during the meeting by typing your question in the box located at the bottom left corner of the webcast screen. These questions will not be visible to other participants.
We intend to answer questions submitted during the meeting that are pertinent to the company and meeting matters as time permits. Please note that the meeting is being recorded. However, participants are not permitted to use any recording device. The Board appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions to act as the Inspector of Elections to the meeting. We are informed by our Inspector that our quorum shall be deemed present for purposes of conducting the business of the meeting.
KPMG, our independent auditors, are attending today's meeting through the live webcast. We will now review the matters to be voted on. The first item on the agenda is the Election of Directors. The Director nominees are Mike Jackson, Rick Burdick, David Edelson, Steve Gerard, Bob Drusky, Norm Jenkins, Lisa Letopurlo, Mike Mikan and Jackie Travisano. Your Board recommends a vote for each of these nominees.
Agenda Item two concerns the ratification of the selection of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021. Your Board recommends a vote for Agenda Item two. Agenda Item three is a stockholder proposal regarding special meetings. The proposal was submitted by John Chevedden. I recognize Mr.
Chevedden's authorized representative, Mrs. Cam Franklin, for a period of three minutes. Operator, please open Ms. Franklin's line.
Good morning, Proposal three. Shareholder right to call a special shareholder meeting. Shareholders ask our board to take the steps necessary to amend the governing documents to give the owners of a combined 10% of our outstanding common stock the power to call a special shareholder meeting. This proposal topic won 36% support at the twenty twenty annual meeting, the highest support for shareholder proposal at AutoNation in at least ten years. This is all the more impressive due to the double digit insider holdings at AutoNation.
Insiders almost always resist improving corporate governance. It is time to update just a moment the corporate governance of AutoNation and adopt this proposal. The 2020 management objections to this proposal have largely evaporated. In 2020, management said that only management should be able to call a special meeting because management wanted more control. With the almost universal adoption of online shareholder meetings, management now has the control at once.
Shareholder questions and comments can be arbitrarily screened out at an online special meeting, giving management exactly the control it wanted according to its twenty twenty annual meeting materials. For instance, Goodyear management hit the mute button right in the middle of a formal shareholder proposal presentation at its twenty twenty online shareholder meeting. With the CEO succession problems at AutoNation, shareholders may want to elect a replacement director for the current chairman of the AutoNation nomination committee, missus Jacqueline Travesano, or the previous chairman, mister Rick Burdick. Shareholders may not want to wait for an annual meeting. The beauty of good governance proposal like this proposal is that it would not result in more cost because their mere presence of good governance serves as a guardrail to make sure that management elects the best directors on their own.
Because if management does not then shareholders have a practical remedy with teeth to make their director nominations known to management. Nuance Communications shareholders gave 94% support to a 2018 shareholder proposal calling for 10% of the shareholders to call a special meeting. Please vote yes. Shareholder right to call a special shareholder meeting, proposal number three. Thank you.
Your Board recommend to vote against Item three for the reasons set forth in the company's proxy statement. This concludes the review of the matters to be voted on. The polls are now closed. The Inspector of Election will collect and tabulate all the proxies and ballots. Subject to a final tabulation, we report the following preliminary results provided by the Inspector: that all of the Director nominees have been elected that the appointment of KPMG has been ratified that stockholders have voted against the Special Meeting's proposal.
The final voting results will become part of the record of the meeting and will be reported in a Form eight ks to be filed in connection with the matters voted upon at this meeting.
Thank you, Coleman. All items of business have now been completed. We will now answer any questions.
Mr. Jackson, we have a question. Could you discuss where you see the demand and the inventory situation that currently exist in auto retail?
The demand is exceptional. There is tremendous desire on the part of the American people to control their environment in light of the pandemic and they have decided they want personal vehicles, personal transportation, they want to express their independence and go where they want to go whenever they want to go and control who is in the vehicle with them. This has created exceptional demand from every price point from $5,000 a car to $500,000 a car. We then have the situation from a year ago of the shutdown of the shelter in place, which closed new vehicle manufacturing for an extended period of time, which caused the reduction of inventories. And even though production has resumed, it is nowhere near the level of demand.
And it looks like that circumstance will continue through the rounds of this year now with the difficulties that the industry confronts with shortages on the microchip. But I should be clear that the shipments on the manufacturers are dramatically improved from a year ago, almost double. And if I compare it to what was full production in 2019, it's only down 6% at the moment. So the headline is very much that auto retail has more demand than supply. We've tried to balance this by aggressively purchasing pre owned vehicles and have done that successfully and you see our outstanding performance in the most recent quarters with a 28% improvement in units of pre owned in the first quarter.
Mr. Jackson, that concludes. I have no other questions for you.
Thank you all for your continued support and your interest in AutoNation. We work on your behalf every day. This concludes today's webcast and the meeting is now adjourned. Thank you very much.