Welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting for Columbia Sportswear Company. Our host for today's call is Tim Boyle, Chairman, President and CEO. At this time, all participants will be in a listen only mode. I will now turn the call over to your host, Mr. Boyle.
You may begin, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon and thanks for joining us for Columbia Sportswear's 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The meeting is now called to order. This is Tim Boyle speaking. To ensure the health and safety of our employees and shareholders, this is our first ever virtual shareholder meeting.
We appreciate you joining us virtually since we cannot all be in the Columbia Lillehammer Conference Center this year. We will start today's meeting by considering the matters described in our proxy statement. I will then provide a quick review of the company's 2019 financial results. I will also provide an overview of how the COVID-nineteen pandemic is impacting our business and the actions we've taken to mitigate the human and financial impacts. We will then open the meeting up for questions.
You will be afforded the opportunity to vote your shares if you have not already done so. We will close the voting after the question and answer session at the end of the meeting. In the bottom right hand side of your screen, you should see relevant materials for today's meetings, including our 2019 annual report, our 2020 proxy statement and a copy of the rules of conduct and procedures for this meeting. We're fortunate to have members of the Board of Directors and management team attending the virtual meeting today, including Board members Stephen Babson, Walt Klenz and Kevin Mansell. Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Peter Bragdon Executive Vice President and Columbia Brand President, Joe Boyle and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Jim Swanson.
I'd also like to recognize Dave Baretta and Lana Smith with Deloitte and Touche, our independent registered public accounting firm and John Thomas and Angie Bertram with Perkins Coie, the company's external legal counsel. I will now review voting formalities. Peter Braggen, our General Counsel and Secretary will record the minutes of this meeting. Notice of this meeting was sent on or about April 20, 2020. I've obtained a certificate of mailing from Broadbridge, our service provider for this virtual meeting and will file it with a meeting record.
Also as required under Oregon corporate law, a link to the registered shareholder list is available on the meeting portal. Kevin Chao from Broadridge has been appointed as Inspector of Elections for the meeting and is participating in the meeting today and has taken and signed an Oath of Inspector of Elections that will also be filed with the meeting minutes. As of the record date, April 1, 2020, 66,117,755 shares of our common stock, the only authorized class of voting security of the company were issued and outstanding and able to be voted at this meeting. Mr. Chow has confirmed that we have received 97.3% of votes by proxy, which constitutes a quorum.
Therefore, the meeting is duly constituted and we may proceed with business. The polls are now open for those who have not yet voted. If you have not previously voted over the Internet, phone or mail, you do not need to take any action. If you have previously voted and wish to change your vote, please do so before the polls close. Once the polls close, we will announce the preliminary results.
If you wish to vote during the meeting, you should be able to do so by clicking on the link at the right hand side of the screen on the meeting portal. Also you should be able to see a text box in the meeting portal where you may submit questions. Please see the rules of conduct and procedures in the right hand side of the screen in the meeting portal for more information about questions that will be answered at this meeting. Please go ahead and start to submit questions at this time. Portions of this meeting, in particular the business update, may contain forward looking statements regarding Columbia's business opportunities and anticipated results of operations.
Please bear in mind that forward looking information is subject to many risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from what is projected. Many of these risks and uncertainties are described in Columbia's most recent quarterly report on Form 10 Q and subsequent filings with the SEC. Matters to be considered. I will now review the proposals to be acted upon at this meeting. There are 4 matters on the agenda for consideration today.
We did not receive notice in accordance with our bylaws of any additional matters to be considered. Therefore, no other proposals or nominations may be introduced at today's meeting. The first item on the voting agenda is the election of 8 directors for the next year. The experience and qualifications of each of our nominees are described in our most recent proxy statement, which is easily accessible on the meeting portal. The Board has recommended the following slate of nominees: Timothy Boyle, Stephen Babson, Andy Bryant, Walter Klinz, Kevin Manzel, Ronald Nelson, Sabrina Simons and Malia Wasson.
Our Board recommends that shareholders vote for all of these nominees. You may notice some changes to the slate as compared to years past. In 2019, we lost our 1 Tough Mother Chairman and matriarch, Gert Boyle, whose strength and character guided this company for nearly 50 years. Gert held many jobs at Columbia from seamstress of the first fishing vest to chairwoman to advertising icon. Her sharp wit and wisdom helped propel the company from near bankruptcy in the early 70s to the global multi brand company it is today.
She was truly beloved by many people at Columbia Sportswear Company and her mantra, it's perfect now make it better, continues to guide our culture. Following her passing, I was appointed Chairman of the Board. In connection with my election, the Board of Directors acted to formalize a lead independent director role and appointed Andy Bryant to serve in this role. To focus on administrating Gert Boyle's estate, my sister and long time Director, Sally Behney resigned from the Board. Sally was a valuable member of the Board whose service will be missed, but we fully understand her desire to focus on matters related to Gert's estate.
I'd also like to thank Bob Albers who decided not to stand for reelection at this meeting. Bob served on the board for more than 25 years helping the company overcome countless challenges as we built our global business. The second item on today's agenda is to ratify the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2020. Our Board recommends that shareholders vote for such a ratification. The 3rd item in today's agenda is to approve by non binding vote the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed in this proxy statement in accordance with SEC rules.
Our Board recommends a vote for approval by non binding vote of executive compensation. The compensation committee and the Board value the views of Columbia's shareholders and are committed to excellence in the design and effectiveness of Columbia's executive compensation program. Columbia's executive compensation program is designed to attract, retain and motivate key highly talented executive officers and to align executive officer and shareholder financial interests while encouraging prudent risk taking in order to achieve long term shareholder objectives. Columbia believes that its executive compensation program which includes long term equity awards as a significant component of an executive officers overall compensation opportunity satisfies this goal and is strongly aligned with the long term interest of shareholders. Columbia's total shareholder return over the 1, 3 5 year periods ended December 31, 2019 was 20%, 78% and 138% respectively.
The Board and the compensation committee believe that the 2019 compensation program for the named executive officers help to motivate the executive officers and encourage appropriate risk taking in order to achieve strong financial performance amid continuing global macroeconomic challenges. Although this vote is advisory and non binding to the board or the company, the board and the compensation committee which is responsible for designing and administering Columbia's executive compensation program value the opinions expressed by shareholders in their vote on this proposal and will consider the outcome of the vote when making future compensation policies and decisions for named executive officers. The 4th item on today's agenda is to approve the Columbia Sportswear Company's 2020 Stock Incentive Plan. On April 9, 2020, our board unanimously approved the Columbia Sportswear Company 2020 stock incentive plan subject to an approval by our shareholders at this annual meeting. To replace our existing stock incentive plan, the Columbia Sportswear Company 1997 Stock Incentive Plan as previously amended.
The 2020 stock plan will be effective immediately following the annual meeting if it is approved by the shareholders. If the 2020 stock plan is not approved by our shareholders, no awards will be made pursuant to the 2020 stock plan and the company will continue to grant awards under the 1997 stock plan. The purpose of the 2020 Stock Plan is to attract and retain employees providing services to the company or to any parent or subsidiary of the company and knowledgeable independent non employee directors of the company and to provide additional incentives to those persons to continue to work in the best interest of the company and its shareholders. Our Board recommended that shareholders vote for approval of the 2020 stock plan. As noted earlier, there are no other proper proposals for consideration at this meeting.
I'll use the next few minutes to review our 2019 financial performance and provide an overview of how the COVID-nineteen pandemic is impacting our business and the actions we're taking to mitigate the human and financial impacts. 2019 was a strong year for Columbia Sportswear with record net sales surpassing the $3,000,000,000 mark for the first time in our company's history as well as record gross margin, operating income and diluted earnings per share. Broad based growth was led by the momentum of the Columbia and SOREL brands and our brand led consumer focused strategy. For the year, we generated 9% sales growth. Looking at this growth by brand, Columbia Brand net sales increased 9% with balanced growth across footwear and apparel.
Our long term focus remains on making Columbia the number one outdoor brand in the world. For our SOREL brand, 2019 was an amazing year that reflects the momentum of the brand strategy and positioning as a year round function first fashion footwear brand. Net sales were up 21% for the year driven by robust growth across our U. S. Wholesale and e commerce businesses.
Turning to Prana, 2019 was a transition year with net sales down 4% as the team optimized distribution and reestablish the brand's premium position in the marketplace. For Mountain Hardwear, hardware 2019 was a transitional year with net sales relatively flat for the year. We brought our revamped product line to market, reignited business with key U. S. Wholesale specialty accounts, further strengthening our team and reestablished Mountain Hardware's position in the marketplace.
I'd now like to shift our focus to 2020. This year quickly took a different path than we had planned as the COVID-nineteen pandemic unfolded. First, it's important to understand where we began the year. We entered into this crisis in a position of strength. Columbia Sportswear has been in business for over 80 years and has weathered many storms.
Exiting 2019, we had a fortress balance sheet with $688,000,000 in cash and short term investments and no long term debt. Our 13% operating margin in 2019 was top quartile in our industry. While we're proud of our history and financial strength, we know that these are unprecedented times. Even well built fortresses can be penetrated and we're taking steps to strengthen liquidity, preserve capital and reduce costs as we prepare for a prolonged downturn of unknown duration. We're keenly focused on emerging from this crisis in a stronger competitive position.
As countries work to contain the spread of the virus, we have experienced significant store closures across both our own stores as well as our wholesale partner stores. This has had a meaningful impact on consumers' ability to buy our products. Our e commerce businesses have largely remained operational during the pandemic except for temporary distribution center closures in France and China that have since resumed operations. In many regions our stores have reopened, but each market is facing its own unique set of circumstances and it's uncertain how long it will take until foot traffic increases significantly. During this pandemic, our top priority remains to protect the health and safety of our employees, their families, our customers and our communities.
We've initiated work from home measures around the world which have been operating smoothly. For employees that are returning to the office environment we are following best practices around social distancing and cleaning to promote a safe and healthy environment. In our distribution centers, we have implemented social distancing policies, installed protective barriers, staggered shifts and taken aggressive sanitization measures to keep those facilities clean. To do right by our employees, we implemented catastrophic paid leave and furlough benefits, which vary by business unit and by region. We have also taken a number of actions to provide greater financial flexibility and liquidity.
Taken altogether, as of the date of our last earnings call on April 30, the company's total available committed and uncommitted credit lines and facilities provided more than $630,000,000 of borrowing capacity, of which $525,000,000 was committed. We are confident in our ability to access additional liquidity should the environment require such actions and we continue to evaluate our needs. We have also taken steps to reduce capital outflows. The company's Board of Directors approved the suspension of the company's quarterly dividend. We have suspended share repurchase and reduced planned capital expenditures.
Collectively, these actions are to reduce 2020 capital outflows by approximately $130,000,000 In addition, we have implemented several cost reduction actions including minimizing discretionary expenditures, reducing demand creation spending, curtailing hiring and reductions of staff and salaries. My salary has been reduced to $10,000 the minimum in order to retain healthcare benefits. Independent board members' compensation has been reduced by 50% through January 2021 and senior management and executive salaries were reduced between 5% 15%. Taken together these actions should lower 2020 operating expense by more than $100,000,000 before the extraordinary excuse me, before incremental extraordinary expenses related to the pandemic. Given the uncertainty of the situation and impact on our business, additional cost containment measures are under consideration and will continue to evolve.
In summary, our objective is to carefully navigate this environment with our historical disciplined approach and emerge from this crisis in a stronger competitive position. We are confident in our strategy and our ability to weather this storm. Our long term commitment to driving sustainable and profitable growth has not changed and our strategic priorities remain to drive global brand awareness and sales growth through increased focused demand creation investments, enhance consumer experience and digital capabilities in all of our channels and geographies, expand and improve global direct to consumer operations with supporting processes and systems and invest in our people and optimize our organization across our portfolio of brands. Now I'd like to discuss the questions we've received via the web portal. Andrew Burns, Director of Investor Relations and Competitive Intelligence will be reading the questions.
Please be reminded that the rules of conduct and procedures posted on the web portal will cover this session. Andrew?
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to summarize the questions and I've got a couple that I'll get out of the way real quickly that I can answer before we allow Tim to respond. We were asked where donations can be made in Gert's memory. We would like you to consider a donation to the Oregon Health and Sciences Knight Cancer Institute. I believe that was Gert's wishes.
We also received another question regarding store passes. Based on the email you logged in with, we'll be able to be sure and get you some access to the store. So with those out of the way, the first question for Tim would be just an update on the European market and to the extent you can comment on the year to date activities for that region.
Certainly. Well as we know the virus has been especially impactful in key markets in Europe for the company. So comparisons to prior periods really are not viable And so our stores are mostly reopening now in those jurisdictions that allow for retail stores to be open and we're monitoring the situation, making sure that we have a healthy environment for our employees and our customers.
Great. Thank you. The next question is from a shareholder that's concerned about income equality. They were pleased to see that the 2019 company increased the compensation for employees paid by a median of 8.6% and that it narrowed the median CEO pay ratio from 130 to 1 to 97 to 1 in 2019. Nevertheless, this shareholder is concerned about workers compensated the median renting an average price studio apartment in Portland will spend 44% of their earnings on rent.
What can the company do about this and does this concern the Board?
I'm glad for the question. Our comp committee which is made up of independent directors also uses an independent comp consultant to help us make appropriate compensation decisions. This year you'll see that the ratio will decrease as I've reduced my compensation to $10,000 for this year. We also have supported public policy efforts to increase affordable housing here in Portland And please remember that only a small percentage of our total employee base lives in Portland.
Great. Thank you, Tim. At this time, we have no further questions. So that will conclude the Q and A session and I'll turn it back over to you, Tim.
Thanks, Andrew. We appreciate your time and effort and for everyone on the call and for questions. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I now declare the polls for the 2020 Columbia Sportswear Company Annual Shareholder Meeting to be closed. I understand that the votes have been counted and the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections has been delivered to the company. The preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections indicates that all of the nominees for director positions for the coming year have been elected.
Each candidate received the affirmative number of votes of at least 60,000,000 564 votes. Ratification of the appointment of Deloitte Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020 has been approved by the shareholders by the affirmative vote of at least 63,444,186 votes representing more than a majority of the votes cast at the meeting. The compensation of the company's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC has been approved by the shareholders by the affirmative vote of at least 62,113,888 votes representing more than a majority of the votes cast at the meeting. The 2020 stock incentive plan has been approved by the shareholders by the affirmative vote of at least 57,075,735 votes representing more than a majority of the votes cast at the meeting. Confirmed results will be reported on a current report on Form 8 ks filed with the SEC within the next 4 days.
You have now heard the results of the voting and this completes the business to be conducted at this meeting. Since there are no other matters to properly come before the meeting, I will now adjourn the meeting. In appreciation for joining us today on our 1st virtual annual shareholder meeting, we would like to offer you an opportunity to buy our great products at a discount. An email with the details will be sent to the email addresses provided while signing into the meeting today. We would also like to direct your attention to our Investor Relations website investor.columbia.com.
The website contains stock quotes, our proxy statement and our annual report and other investor information. I want to thank you again for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support. Please stay safe.