Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of EPPA Group Incorporated. I am Stefan Tanda, Director and President and Chief Executive Officer of the company. I'm acting as Chairman of this meeting. In light of public health concerns regarding the COVID-nineteen pandemic and related travel restrictions, this year's annual meeting is being held in a virtual only format via live audio webcast.
We are conducting this meeting in accordance with our bylaws and the meeting rules of procedure. The meeting rules and agenda are available on the virtual meeting website. At this time, I called the meeting to order. I would like to thank everyone for attending this meeting. I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce George Fotitis, who is in attendance at today's meeting.
Mr. Fotitis is the Chairman of Aptar's Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cantel Medical Corp, and Director of Cantel Medical Corp, and Prologis Inc. Also in attendance is Kimberly Y. Cheney, Executive Vice President, Global General Counsel and Secretary of the company. She's acting as Secretary of this meeting.
Also joining us today is Robert W. Kuhn, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the company. I would also like to introduce Dan Finneran and Garrett Dickens of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company's independent accountants. Mr. Finneran and Mr.
Dickens will be available to answer any questions you may have later in this meeting. The secretary of the company will now proceed with the matters on the agenda.
Good morning. I am Kimberly Cheney, secretary of the company. I have received from Broadridge an affidavit of mailing of notice of annual meeting. In the interest of expediency, we will dispense with the reading of the notice of annual meeting and the affidavit of mailing of the notice. However, copies of these documents will be filed with the minutes of the meeting.
The Board of Directors has set the close of business on 03/12/2021 as the record date for this meeting. As secretary, I also have a record of the stockholders as of that date, which is available for inspection by stockholders during the meeting using the registered stockholder list link found on the virtual meeting website. The company has appointed Lewis D. Larson as Broadridge's representative to act as inspector of election for the meeting. I have been advised by the inspector of election that no less than a majority of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of the company are represented via webcast or by proxy at today's virtual meeting.
Accordingly, a quorum is present, and the formal business of the meeting may proceed. The polls are now open for voting on all matters to be voted on at this annual meeting as set forth in the notice of annual meeting. As a reminder, stockholders attending the virtual meeting can vote their shares or change their votes online from now through the closing of the polls by logging into the meeting website as a stockholder using the 16 digit control number you receive with your proxy materials and clicking the link provided on the screen. If you have previously voted and do not wish to change your vote, your vote will be cast as previously instructed and no further action is required. The virtual meeting website will also allow you to submit questions for the question and answer session following the formal business of the meeting.
Since the company was not notified of the intention of any stockholder to nominate a director or to present a motion at this annual meeting. In accordance with the bylaws of the company, the only nominees for director who may properly be nominated at this meeting and the only matters which may properly come before this meeting are those nominees and matters set forth in the notice of annual meeting. As indicated in the proxy statement that accompanies the notice of annual meeting, four members of the board of directors are to be elected by the holders of common stock. The Board has nominated Andreas C. Kranvis, Marissa Gomez Matiel, Jesse Wu, and Ralph K.
Wunderlich to serve as directors until the twenty twenty four Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The remaining items of business are as follows. The proposal to approve the resolution on executive compensation on an advisory basis and two, the proposal to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021. The inspector of election has recorded the proxies executed in advance of this meeting and will record all votes received electronically at the meeting today. If you have not yet voted, please do so now by logging into the meeting website as a stockholder and clicking the link provided on your screen, since we will be closing the polls at this time.
Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, the polls are now closed for voting on all matters. Based on the preliminary count of the votes, the inspector of the election has certified that each of the four nominees for director has received the affirmative vote of a majority of votes cast present via webcast or represented by proxy at this meeting and entitled to vote on the election of directors. The proposals to approve the resolution on executive compensation on an advisory basis and to ratify the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm for 2021 have received the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares of common stock present via webcast or represented by proxy at this meeting and entitled to vote on each such matter.
You have heard the report of the inspector of election, whereas the necessary votes have been cast in favor of the election of each of the nominees for director and in favor of each of the proposals. I hereby declare one, that each Andreas C. Krampus, Maritza Gomez Montiel, Jessie Wu, and Ralph K. Wunderlich has been duly elected to serve as the Director of Aptar Group Inc. The twenty twenty four Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
Two, that the resolution on executive compensation has been duly approved on an advisory basis. And three, that the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm for twenty twenty one has been duly ratified. The inspector will furnish a written report of the final vote count with respect to the election of directors, the approval of the resolution on executive compensation on an advisory basis, and the ratification of the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm for 2021, which report shall be included in the minutes of the meeting. Since there is no further business to come before this meeting, the meeting is adjourned and I will share an overview of the business. I would like to briefly share our safe harbor language.
Please refer to our reports filed with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could impact future results. Additionally, we'd like to remind you that during this call, we will discuss some non GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures is included in our reports filed with the SEC and available on our website. I would like to start by sharing some of the highlights from AFTER's investment thesis. We have a proud seventy five year history of innovation, and we are a leader in several niche markets, including drug delivery, beauty, and food dispensing, and active material solutions.
Our company is serving diverse end markets while leveraging a common technology base. This approach has increased the company's resiliency to the significant economic and pandemic challenges, and has helped us overcome temporary weaknesses in certain markets. We have made strategic investments that will add critical capacity to key areas, such as lotion pumps and components for injected medicines. We were active on the M and A front, acquiring FusionPKG to bolster our go to market turnkey capabilities. And we invested in selected partners such as SunMol, which is developing connected healthcare solutions to further strengthen our portfolio.
The key element of Aptose compounding growth story is our dividend program. In 2020, we returned $93,000,000 to shareholders. And with the most recent increase, we are on track for our twenty eighth consecutive year of paying an increased aggregate annual dividend. Turning to Slide seven, by executing on our balanced capital allocation strategy and investing in new technologies and capacity, while we strengthen our competitive position through complementary acquisitions and partnerships, Aptar has grown and achieved a total shareholder return of 102 over the past five years. This return has exceeded the returns of our peer group and the S and P MidCap 400.
Looking at our 2020 performance, reported sales increased 2% and on a comparative basis, core sales of $2,900,000,000 were in line with the prior year. We achieved record cash flow from operations and record free cash flow through the combination of the strong performance of our Pharma segment, contributions from recent cash accretive acquisitions, cost containment efforts, and working capital improvements. As shown on slide eight, Aptar has shared insights, product design, and manufacturing across all three segments, resulting in significant efficiencies and scalability across our business. Our pharma segment performed well in 2020, achieving strong sales growth on top of a very strong result a year ago. Demand was particularly strong for injectable components and active material science solutions.
Pharma sales reached $1,200,000,000 with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%. Our Beauty plus Home, Food plus Beverage segments experienced a more difficult year due to the pandemic affecting demand from the beauty and beverage markets with improved results in the second half of the year. Reported sales in Beauty plus Home were $1,300,000,000 with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 10%. Finally, food and beverage reported sales were $4.00 $5,000,000 and experienced lower on the go beverage sales due to the pandemic and this segment's adjusted EBITDA margin was 18%. Turning to Slide nine, in the first quarter of this year, overall reported sales for Aptar increased 8%, and on a comparative basis, core sales increased 1%.
This is compared to the 2020 when COVID-nineteen was not yet a major factor in our quarterly results. As shown on slide 10, Aptar is proud to be an innovation leader. Our product design, engineering, and active material science expertise has allowed us to create packaging solutions, which serve diverse markets with signature product lines that leverage our core technologies. This includes nasal drug delivery, where we are providing the nasal delivery device for NARCAN. Our material science experts are focused on active packaging and diagnostics, including protecting COVID-nineteen testing kits for moisture.
We have a robust line of sustainable product solutions, including 100% post consumer recycled resin solutions. In consumer dispensing, customers transform products from non dispensing to dispensing, including recent examples such as Daisy Squeeze sour cream, and Jif Squeeze peanut butter. Today, we hold over 5,000 active patents, and approximately 3% of our revenue is invested in research and development. Slide 11 highlights recent accolades we received as a socially responsible and sustainable company. We are recognized for our leadership in corporate sustainability by several organizations, including the global environmental nonprofit ZDP, Newsweek, Behrens, ISS, MSCI and Echowadis.
On slide 12, I would like to speak to our focus on making Aptar an even more diverse, inclusive, and equitable company. We have joined the Gender and Diversity KPI Alliance, a group of diversity and inclusion advocates and more than 50 corporate leaders to support the use of key performance indicators that provide an overview of the diversity of our workforce and allow us to evaluate results, not efforts. We remain committed to a diversity goal of at least 30% of all Aptar leaders at the vice president level and above to be women by 2025. Our women's employee resource group called Align is providing resources and support for continued development across the company. Finally, we continue to be recognized for the diversity of our board of directors by Women on Boards twenty twenty and the Women's Forum of New York.
Turning now to slide 13, I would like to share a bit more about our Board of Directors, which is comprised of multicultural experience and diverse professionals who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and countries. We believe in fresh perspectives and as of year end 2020, 40% of our board has a tenure of less than five years. All of our directors are independent except for me. 20% of our directors are persons of color and 40% are women, with all of our board committees are being chaired by women. In conclusion on slide 14, as we look to the future, we are focused on prioritizing investments in organic growth initiatives, strategic M and A, and returning capital to shareholders.
Our long term financial targets remain unchanged, including our long term core sales growth target of 4% to 7%. We are encouraged by the level of product dialogue with our customers and our balance sheet is in great shape. We will continue to focus on furthering a sustainable, diverse, inclusive business and a more circular economy. It is my pleasure now to begin the question and answer sessions. As a reminder, you may submit questions by logging into the meeting website as a stockholder and entering your questions in the text box that appears on the meeting screen.
We will attempt to answer as many questions in accordance with the meeting rules of procedures as time allows.
There are no questions in the queue.
Since we have no further questions from our stockholder, that concludes the question and answer portion of the meeting. With that, I want to close by thanking everybody who participated in this virtual meeting and those stockholders who submitted questions or not. With that, have a great day.