Morning and welcome to McCormick's Annual Shareholders' Meet. I'm Lawrence Kurzius, Chairman, President and CEO. I'd like to thank you for joining us today for our 2nd meeting in this virtual format. It's been my honor to lead this organization through a very challenging, but rewarding year where we once again delivered excellent results. Before I officially open the meeting, I want to express my sincere hope that everyone on the call and your friends and families are healthy and safe.
I'd like to especially thank our McCormick employees around the world We persevered through the pandemic under extraordinary circumstances and delivered great results. We remain dedicated and focused against the three priorities we established during this unprecedented global pandemic: to ensure the health and safety of our employees and the quality and integrity of our products, keep our brands and our customers' brands at supply and to ensure McCormick emerges stronger. I'm pleased to report at McCormick is stronger than ever because of our people, our long term strategies for growth, performance and people, our response to changing consumer behavior and our ability to capitalize on our opportunity from a position of relative strength. Our strategies and commitment to best in class execution delivered excellent results and generated double digit shareholder return in 2020. We're confident in our ability to deliver top tier financial results while doing what's right for people, communities and the planet we all share.
And I'd like to offer my congratulations to all of our stockholders and thank you for your continued belief in McCormick. Our stock price opened this morning at $89.59 per share. While down from our high, This price represents an $18.98 or nearly 27% increase year on year from the same day last year. In 2020, McCormick launched our new purpose because now more than ever, standing together is the key to our success. I invite you to join us in our shared purpose to stand together for the future of flavor.
Flavor is a positive, unifying and powerful force for good. As a global leader in flavor, we envision a world united by flavor where healthy, sustainable and delicious go hand in hand. Please join us in standing with our other stakeholders, communities, employees, customers and consumers who all want to make a positive impact on the world around us. Today, you will hear about how McCormick is sustainably positioned for growth and how we will win with leadership, win with results and win with talent. Winning in these areas means we will drive undisputed herbs, spices and seasonings leadership, accelerate condiments and flavors platform growth, fuel growth through health and wellness and strengthen customer intimacy and consumer connection.
Let's now turn to the highlights and successes for the year. 2020 was another year of strong performance for McCormick even with periods of significant disruption. We delivered top tier business results while continuing to build the McCormick of the future with investments in our supply chain, brand marketing, communities and our employees who we protected and rewarded for excellent performance. We delivered 5% sales and 6% adjusted earnings per share growth for the year with record cash flow from operations, which crossed the $1,000,000,000 threshold. This year was the 35th consecutive year of dividend increases, continuing our commitment to being a dividend aristocrat.
Finally, for the first time in almost 20 years McCormick completed a 2 for 1 stock split for shareholders of record as of December 1. We are confident McCormick is a much stronger company by continuing the ways of working we developed in responding as addressing the pandemic. Faster decision making, prioritization and adaptability accelerated. Given the extraordinary demand for our products as cooking at home skyrocketed, we protected the health and safety of employees, while dramatically increasing Our supply chain capacity and resilience to support the needs of our growing business and to service our customers. We took care of our people with measures including working from home for office staff, premium pay for hourly workers working on-site, Flexibility and support for caregivers and salary assurances during periods of shutdown.
Acquisitions remain an important contributor to our long term growth strategy and we had a very successful year with the acquisition of the Cholula brand and FOTA International. Both businesses reinforce McCormick's position as a global leader in flavor. Alula is a trusted hot sauce brand with an authentic old Mexican flavor profile and it's highly complementary to our existing hot sauce business. We plan to accelerate momentum, expand distribution and drive further growth. Fona is a leading North American manufacturer of flavors with talented people and innovative flavor technology that expands our flavor solution capabilities.
Kona will be a cornerstone for accelerating McCormick's flavor platform in the Americas. Their customer centric culture is very similar to ours and the combination of our product portfolio strengthens our ability to meet growing demand for clean, natural and flavorful eating, drinking and nutrition experiences. We increased investment in brand marketing by 7% in 2020 as digital experiences became more important during Pandemic. Our brands gained millions of new households as consumers took more at home and looked to McCormick to provide online flavor inspiration. E Commerce growth also accelerated over 136 percent and we were well positioned to capitalize on this change in consumer shopping behavior.
The Permit was recognized as the number 1 U. S. Food Brand by Gartner L2 Research in their Digital IQ ranking, our 7th year in a row being ranked as a top 5 food and beverage brands. McCormick continues to make transformative investments and improve productivity to meet the growing global demand for flavor. 2020, we made investments across all regions to expand our global infrastructure and capabilities.
The productivity increases in North America alone are equivalent to adding an entire new manufacturing plant. We broke ground on a new state of the art Northeast distribution center in Maryland and a new flavor solutions manufacturing facility in the U. K. We've made investments in new flavor manufacturing in China. In Australia, we are modernizing our facility with a new headquarters building, Technical Innovation Center and Logistics Center.
In 2020, our employees not only helped deliver strong results for the year, but they also volunteered and financially supported 100 of local charities around the world. McCormick continues to stand with our employees by matching their donations their charities of choice. As a company, we've donated over $10,000,000 to organizations across 22 countries, including those providing COVID-nineteen relief, hunger relief or supporting social justice initiatives. We're proud of everyone's contributions and we'll continue this focus to 2021. 2020 was also another incredible year of recognition for our commitment to purpose led performance.
Just this January McCormick was ranked the 6th most sustainable company in the world and number 1 in the food sector by corporate nights at the Davos World Economic Forum. Our continued commitments to renewable energy, 100% circular Plastics, employee health, safety, diversity and inclusion and community support are important factors driving our performance. McCormick is also ranked on the Barron's 100 Most Sustainable Companies list, where we are also number 1 in 3. Last year McCormick was named a DiversityInc. Top fifty Company for the 4th year in a row.
Diversity and inclusion remains a top priority for our organization and we recognize there is more work to be done. McCormick is making progress toward our goal of having 50% women in leadership positions globally and 30% has been a diverse talent and leadership positions in the U. S. By 2025. We continue to strengthen our focus and our commitment to improve our ability to attract and retain diverse talent and ensure that Aquamix is a great place to work for all employees.
As we close out the review of last year's highlights and successes, I'd like to summarize by saying that 2020 was another strong year for McCormick. We drove outstanding performance and continue to build the McCormick of the future, while protecting our people, supporting our communities and advancing sustainability. Now I'd like to turn to the formal business of the day. Will the Annual Meeting of Shareholders please come to order? I will now ask the Corporate Secretary to advise if the meeting is properly convened.
Lawrence, the notice of annual meeting, the proxy statement and the formal proxy and the annual report to stockholders were sent by US Now or electronically to each shareholder of record of the company beginning February 20 17, 2021. An affidavit to that effect will be filed with the records of the meeting. We have received Proxies representing in excess of 83.4 percent of the voting shares.
The meeting is duly convened and the quorum is present. The minutes of last year's annual meeting, which was held on April 1, 2020, are available for examination by any shareholder. Please contact our company secretary, Jeff Schwartz, after the meeting, if you would like to see a copy. Now let's turn to the formal items of business. The company has appointed Mr.
James J. Raetz, President, American Election Services LLC to serve as Inspector of Election for this meeting. The polls are now open and will remain open until all items of business have been presented and discussed. A substantial majority of the outstanding shares of voting Doc has been voted by proxy, but if you still need to vote, you can do so through the voting mechanism on your screen. You do not have to vote during this meeting if you've already voted by proxy.
The first item is the election of directors. I asked Our company Secretary, Jeff Schwartz, placed the nominees before the meeting.
The director nominees for the next year And until their successors are duly elected and qualified are Dan Brahman, who is the Chief Financial Officer of Nordstrom, Inc. Michael A. Conway, who is Executive Vice President and President, International Licensed Markets, Starbucks Coffee Company Doctor. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, who is President of the University of Maryland, the Baltimore County Lawrence E.
Kurzius, who is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of McCormick and Company Patricia Little, who is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Hershey Company Michael Dean Mangan, who is the former President of Worldwide Power Tools and Accessories of the Black Conductor Corporation Maritza G. Montiel, who is the former Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman, Deloitte, LLP Margaret M. V. Preston, who is the former Managing Director of Private Wealth Management for TD Bank Gary M. Rodkin, who is the former Chief Executive Officer, Conagra Foods Inc.
Jacques Papiero, who is the former Senior Vice President and President, Emerging Markets of Eli Lilly and Company and W. Anthony Vernon, who is the former Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Foods Group. Biographical data on each nominee is included in the proxy The election of these nominees is now placed before the meeting for shareholder approval.
I declare the nominations close. The next item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP to serve as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2021. I call on Jeff Schwartz to place this item before the meeting.
The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors has appointed Ernst and Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm for the company for fiscal 2021. The ratification of this appointment is now placed before the meeting for shareholder approval.
The next item of business to the advisory vote on executive compensation. I call on Jeff Schwartz to place this item before the meeting.
In accordance with the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company has presented a proposal to stockholders known as the say on pay proposal that asks for the approval on a non binding basis of the compensation arrangements for the company's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement. This advisory vote is now placed before the meeting for shareholder approval.
The next item of business with the approval of a charter amendment. I call on Jeff Schwartz to place this item before the meeting.
The Board of Directors of the company has approved and recommended that shareholders approve an amendment to the charter of the company to increase the number of authorized shares Common stock and common stock non voting to 640,000,000 shares each and to change the par value of the company's common stock and common stock non voting from no par to a par value of $0.01 per share. This amendment which is further described in the proxy statement. The amendment is required to ensure the company has sufficient authorized shares available following the recent stock split. The approval of the amendment is now placed for the meeting for shareholder approval. Please
note that the polls are now closed. The preliminary vote tabulation has been completed. The Inspector of Elections has prepared a preliminary report on the results of the voting for this meeting. A substantial majority of shares I've been voted by proxy on the items of business. Those results plus any shares voted through this meeting will be Tali and the results will be available for shareholders to review and our Form 8 ks that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 4 business days of this meeting.
I will now ask our Corporate Secretary to announce the preliminary voting results.
The preliminary voting results based on proxies received prior to this meeting and tabulated this morning are as follows. First, as provided by the majority vote standard in our bylaws, a director nominee must receive a majority of votes passed in order to be elected. Each of the 11 director nominees has been elected with each director nominee having received at least 11,000,000 664,390 3 votes in favor or 98.5% of the vote cast. 2nd, the Board's request for ratification of the appointment of Ernst and Young, LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm Requires the approval of a majority of the votes cast. Ernst and Young's appointment has been ratified with 14,875,000 and 21 votes cash in favor for 99.17 percent of the votes cash.
3rd, the Board's recommendation that stockholders approve on an advisory basis, the compensation arrangements for the company's named executive officers requires the approval of the majority of the votes passed. This Saion Pay proposal has been approved with 11,620,070 votes passed in favor or 97.9% of votes passed. And 4th, the Board's recommendation that shareholders approve the amendment to the company's charter requires the holders of a majority of all the awards entitled to be cast on the matter. The amendment to the company's charter has been approved with 14,505,894 bullets cast in paper or 80.6% of the shares entitled to vote.
Thank you, Jeff. We've now completed the corporate business portion of the stockholder meeting. I now call on our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Mike Smith for his report. Thank you, Lawrence and good morning everyone. Please note that our remarks will include forward looking statements and non GAAP financial measures.
You can find the GAAP to non GAAP reconciliations for this presentation on the McCormick Investor Relations website. Now let's begin with our financial objectives and 2020 results. We are differentiated by our top tier growth objectives. When you compare our long term guidance to our packaged food and flavor house peers McCormick is best in class for both our sales growth targets and our expected increase in adjusted earnings per share. And over the past 5 years, we have delivered against each of our long term constant currency growth objectives.
During this period, our 5 year compounded annual growth rate was 7% for sales, 11% for adjusted operating income and for adjusted earnings per share our growth rate was 11%, all meeting or exceeding our long term constant currency growth Jack. In our most recent fiscal year 2020, we delivered strong financial results despite great disruption from the COVID-nineteen pandemic. Starting at the top line, total company sales rose 5% in 2020. We significantly grew consumer segment sales driven by consumers cooking and eating more at home. Partially offsetting this growth was Wine and Flavor Solutions segment sales as COVID-nineteen restrictions in most markets as well as consumers' reluctance to dine out to reduce demand from our restaurant and other food service customers.
Taken together, our segment results demonstrate the strength of our diverse offering. Our breadth and reach create a balanced portfolio to drive consistency in our performance in a volatile environment. For 2020, adjusted operating income excluding the impact of special charges increased 5% and for the first time exceeded $1,000,000,000 The increase was driven by higher sales, favorable product mix and CCI like cost savings, partially offset by COVID-nineteen related costs, higher employee benefit expenses and brand marketing investments. Turning to our Consumer segment, we grew sales 10% driven by an increase in demand resulting from consumers cooking more at home and fueled by our brand marketing, strong consumer digital engagement and new products. In 2020, we increased adjusted operating income 16% with higher sales and CCI led cost savings more than offsetting a 7% increase in brand marketing, higher employee benefit expenses and COVID-nineteen related costs.
In our Flavor Solutions segment, sales declined 2% driven by lower demand from restaurant and other food service customers due to COVID-nineteen restrictions and consumer reluctance to dine out, partially offset by higher sales to consumer packaged food customers. Adjusted operating income declined 20%, driven by lower sales, unfavorable product mix, COVID-nineteen related costs and higher employee benefit expenses with a portion offset from CCI led cost savings. Adjusted earnings per share ended 2020 at $2.83 compared to $2.68 in 2019. This growth of 6% which includes the impact of unfavorable currency rates was primarily driven by higher adjusted operating income performance and lower interest expense with a partial offset from a higher adjusted income tax rate. Now turning to cash flow.
We have a long history of generating robust cash flow from operations and returning cash to shareholders. In 2020, we generated strong cash flow from operations, reaching a record high of $1,000,000,000 an increase of 10% for 2019. And since 2015, we have grown cash flow from operations at a compounded annual growth rate of 12%. Our 2020 strong cash flow was primarily driven by higher net income and we're very pleased we use a portion of this cash to fully repay for the term loans related to the acquisition of the Frank's RedHot and French's brands. Based on our demonstrated track record of paying down debt and our anticipated strong cash flow generation.
We are confident we will pay down our recent debt related to the Cholula and Sono acquisitions according to our plan. We are also committed to returning cash to our shareholders through our dividend. At the end of 2020, our Board of Directors approved a 10% increase in the quarterly dividend marking our 35th consecutive year of dividend increases. We have paid dividends for the past 96 years since 1925 and we are proud to be a dividend herbicide. Our focus on growth performance and people is driving strong long term results, which generated double digit total shareholder return in the past 1, 5, 10, and 20 year period.
And in 2020, our 12% return compares favorably to a 7% return for our peers in the Packaged Foods Index. Let's now turn to our 2021 outlook. At the top line, we expect to grow constant currency sales 6% to 8%, including the incremental impact from Cholula and Sona acquisition. We expect to drive organic sales growth in both our Consumer and Flavor Solutions segments in 2021, driven by our brand marketing, new products, Category Management and Differentiated Customer Growth Plans. We expect to increase constant currency adjusted operating income 7% to 9%.
This increase reflects strong underlying growth from our base business and acquisitions as well as continued strong performance from our CCI program. This is partially offset by incremental business transformation expenses as well as increased COVID-nineteen costs, which are largely driven by 3rd party manufacturing costs to support demand. At the bottom line, We expect adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.97 to $3.02 which is up 5% to 7% from $2.83 in 2020 and includes a favorable impact from currency. This increase reflects our strong base business performance and acquisition contribution, partially offset by incremental business transformation and COVID-nineteen expenses, as well as a significant headwind estimated from a higher 2021 adjusted effective tax rate. And along with higher profits, we We expect 2021 to be another year of strong cash flow for the company.
Now let's take a quick look at our 2021 Q1 results. As you saw yesterday in the Q1, we grew sales 20% with growth in both our Consumer and Flavor Solutions segments. Dave's business, new products and our latest acquisitions, Tru Louisville and Flona, all contributed to the sales growth. Our consumer segment grew 32%, driven by increased demand resulting from consumers cooking more at home and fueled by our brand marketing, Consumer Digital Engagement and New Products. And our Flavor Solutions segment sales grew 3% driven by our acquisitions and growth with our consumer packaged food customers, partially offset by lower demand from branded food service and other restaurant customers.
Adjusted operating income increased 32% driven by higher sales, favorable product mix and CCI led cost savings, partially offset by COVID-nineteen related costs and higher brand marketing expenses. At the bottom line, our first quarter adjusted earnings per share with $0.72 an increase of 33% from the Q1 of 2020. To conclude, our strong 2020 results as well as the continued strong performance from our Q1 of 2021 to prove the strength of our business model, the value of our products, our capabilities as a company and the successful execution of our strategies. We are confident that the momentum of our business is sustainable and we will continue to build value for you our shareholders. It is now my pleasure to turn the program back over to Mark.
Thank you, Mike, for providing the financial report. Our fundamentals are strong and our performance gives us great confidence that we can continue to build long term shareholder value. We remain steadfast in our focus on growth, performance and people. I'd like to spend the next few minutes on growth and how we plan to win with leadership across our Consumer and Flavor Solutions business segment, when were the results that fuel our growth and drive transformative investments and finally how we will win the talent. The global demand for flavor continues to surge as consumer interest in healthy flavorful cooking grows even stronger.
This long term trend is the foundation of our sales growth. The global pandemic has accelerated the need for great flavor in McCormick Trusted Brands at Spire digitally engaged consumers as they look to bolster their cooking skills and improve their health and wellness. We are well positioned to continue to meet this increased demand both through our products and our flavor solutions customers' products. Our breadth, reach and alignment with these consumer trends is one of our greatest competitive advantages. Interest in health and wellness was magnified during the pandemic.
McCormick continued to raise the awareness of the health benefits of herbs and spices by providing healthy flavor options and solutions. We continue to fund important research through the McCormick Science Institute and we were pleased to see that herbs and spices were included in the 2020 through 2025 dietary guidelines for Americans as a strategy for making healthy meals more flavorful without adding sodium, sugar or fat. Now let's look at our consumer segment, where we continue to win from a leadership position by strengthening our connections with consumers. Performance in our consumer business was exceptional in 2020. We achieved 10% sales growth in constant currency, driven by an increase in cooking and eating at home, increased investments in brand marketing, strong digital engagement, innovative in store merchandising solutions and new products.
Our brand marketing campaigns generated strong returns in 2020. In the U. S, McCormick launched digital campaigns focused on consumer education and building confidence in the kitchen as well as new TV commercials promoting flavorful Frank's Bread Hot products during the large Super Bowl leading occasion. In Europe, strong brand communications bringing to life unique sourcing and product superiority stories about the sustainability and naturalness of our flavors, real growth in all key markets. And finally, in China, We continue to leverage partnerships with online communities and drive digital and direct to consumer strategies to reach new cooks, millennials and Gen Z consumers.
Digital experiences became even more important as cooking from home accelerated during the pandemic and we expect this trend to continue. Our proprietary research shows that the majority of consumers are cooking more from scratch, enjoying the cooking experience and adding flavor to their meal. They're looking for real time flavor inspiration and recipe ideas across their favorite digital platforms and we deliver solutions. E commerce growth accelerated by over 136% in 2020. Our digital leadership is a true advantage for McCormick as we were well prepared for the significant change in consumer behavior as consumers anchored in their homes and shopped online.
We activated several new initiatives to make digital touch points shoppable by allowing consumers to browse, click and shop more easily with one click without leaving their favorite sites. McCormick built significant momentum in trial with the launch of new products like our Sports 1 Pan Recipe Mixes, Bahamay Baking Product, Frank's Red Hot Frozen Bites, McCormick Instant McCormick Instant Pot Recipe Mixes and McCormick Weihao Mei hot pot sauces. Long term, we believe that differentiated innovation New products will continue to be a driver of growth for McCormick. In the U. S, we introduced an initiative to reinvent the in store experience for spices and seasonings with new merchandising elements to improve navigation and shop ability.
This new approach provides an opportunity for Hormex and our retail partners capitalize on the growing consumer demand for flavor. We reset over 5,000 stores Despite the pandemic, we continue to expect we expect to continue the rollout in 2021. Now let's shift to our flavor solutions segment, where we've continued to win with leadership by strengthening customer intimacy. Performance on our flavor solutions business was impacted by the increase in remote working from home, lockdown and the global slowdown in the restaurant industry. As the impact of the pandemic continues to ease, we are already partnering with our customers on their 2021 recovery plan.
Despite the significant disruption in our flavor solutions business last year, McCormick continued to drive customer intimacy through innovative digital collaboration with our culinary teams around the world. Helping customers adapt to the changing environment was crucial to maintaining our position in the industry as a trusted partner. The customer migration to better for you portfolios continued in 2020. Our broad flavor solutions technology platforms along with our culinary foundation allowing McCormick to deliver great tasting, differentiated natural flavor solutions for customers to meet this growing demand. Helping customers achieve their health and wellness goals remains a major growth opportunity for McCormick.
Our performance strategies are designed to win with results. We're making transformative investments to sustainably meet our growing demand and enhance our competitiveness as we continue to build our global supply chain of the future. Throughout the company, we continue to expand our infrastructure to optimizing our distribution network and modernizing our manufacturing capability. These investments allow us to further increase efficiencies at great capacity to fuel our growth and build shareholder value. In APZ, we're investing in flavor capabilities to drive flavor solutions growth by expanding our facility in Wuhan, China to enable development of advanced liquid spray dried flavors.
Throughout 2020, the COVID-nineteen pandemic challenged our supply chain in unexpected ways. With most employees continuing to work on-site, our supply chain team in every region showed the continuity of our business by working to keep our brands and our customers' brands in supply as facilities quickly pivoted to increase production to meet demand and execute business continuity plan. Our global sourcing organization has been an advantage for us as we manage the challenging transportation logistics and continue to source raw material from over 85 countries around the world. Although we're still challenged to meet the extended elevated demand for certain product lines, particularly in North America, Our ability to meet increased customer demand and execute during a global pandemic highlights our ability and agility, and I want to recognize McCormick employees around the world for driving our momentum and success and thank them for their efforts and engagement through this crisis. At McCormick, we're committed to improving the lives of people, the communities we share, communities where we live, work and source and our planet.
We call it purpose led performance. Delivering top tier financial results and doing what's right remains a priority for the company and I'm excited to share progress on our major sustainability initiatives. To reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and power our operations sustainably. Performing in partnership with a regional energy company and other businesses have committed to purchase the output from the Skipjack Solar Center, enabling us to power our Maryland and New Jersey based facilities with 100 percent renewable energy by 2022. This project alone will reduce our global greenhouse gas emissions by 11%.
We've also invested in 100% renewable energy from a wind farm in Texas to power our operations there. We've made significant progress to reach our goal of having 100% circular plastic packaging by 2025. Underscore that goal is to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, where we, along with other global companies, have committed to creating a circular plastic packaging to eliminate plastic pollution. To further emphasize this commitment, in Canada, we've partnered with Loop, a global reuse platform to enable us to help consumers make the ship through reusable plastic packaging. At McCormick, we win with our talent because our employees are central to all that we do.
Their performance key to executing our strategy and driving growth. The power of people has remained a core pillar of our strategic roadmap and it has never been more important than now to ensure our people are engaged, rewarded and developed. As we navigated COVID-nineteen, We quickly adapted our ways of working for many employees and moving to a virtual working environment in our offices and where our frontline workers work on-site every day to produce our product. We implemented health and safety protocol. Employees who could work from home were supported and with enhanced technology, Online training opportunities and a global communication and care campaign to keep them connected and focused.
Those working on-site were supported with on-site temperature checks, distribution of personal protective equipment and enhanced benefits and flexibility. Ensuring the health and safety of all employees as it remains a top priority during these uncertain times. To support employee well-being, McCormick delivered premium pay to those continuing to work on-site, offer paid leave family members and maintains 100% pay if operations were suspended. Around the world McCormick employees have a profound legacy sorry, so folks this is real time. Around the world, McCormick employees have a proud legacy of supporting local communities.
To benefit those impacted by the pandemic, Employees in the U. S. And Canada donated to relief funds to provide grants to restaurant operators and others to keep businesses running. China employees donated to provide masks and help purchase necessary food supplies for underserved communities. And in the Asia Pacific zone, Employees donated to the Prime Minister Care Fund to support COVID-nineteen research and expand treatment availability.
Following their individual donation, employees in the U. S. Also amplified their efforts by taking advantage of McCormick's Matching Gift Program, for all donations are matched dollar for dollar by the company. As we faced social and racial justice crisis last summer, McCormick quickly responded in order to stand with our employees and community to support social and racial justice. McCormick's leadership signed a pact to stand against racism, made internal and public commitments to support Black lives, to help panel discussions, focus groups and increased training for our employees on subjects such as unconscious bias and race matter.
While we know we have made progress, we also know we have opportunities for improvement and we're committed to making a difference for all of our employees. At McCormick, we value diversity at all levels of the organization, including on our Board of Directors, which represents 40% ethnically diverse talent and includes 4 Women Director. As we continue to focus on diversity and inclusion, We've progressed our goals to increase proportion of ethnically diverse talent in the U. S. And women across the company.
We've also expanded our leadership development program to provide employees with the tools they need to grow and have leveraged our employee ambassador group's to promote inclusion within the company. Every year during this meeting, we recognize employees to embody McCormick's same commitment to their community as they volunteer selflessly to make a positive impact. Now in its 18th year, the Community Service Award perfectly represents the power of people at McCormick. One grand prize winner will receive $25,000 for their charity and all remaining finalists will receive $5,000 for their charity. With that, the Community Service Award finalist for 2020 are Claire Melodson for her work with Nepal at HAC.
Rob Johnson for his work with Colby. Charles Gabriel for his work with Per Gee, Pierre Jean Clay for his work with the French Roundtable and Sandrine Pippe for her work with the Magdalena project, the Yatra and Areza, Des Lardres Des. Before I announce the winner, I'd like to congratulate all finalists for your commitment to your community. The winner of the 2020 Community Service Award is Claire Lorentzon for her work with the top with the top Fedex. The Bob2DEX works to provide food, housing and education to over 700 children, Cotonero Sanim.
Since 2008, Claire has worked with the organization to renovate buildings, provide school supplies and further vocational opportunities for children living in the village where she was born. Through our work, we're standing together for the future of flavor. And we're creating a world united by flavor where healthy, sustainable and delicious go hand in hand because a successful business driving people and a flavorful future depends on us. We're well equipped to execute our strategies and we'll continue to drive growth and shareholder value as we respond to changing consumer behavior and capitalize on new opportunities. I want to thank our 13,000 employees around the world for their hard work, effort and dedication.
I'm proud of the way we performed in these unprecedented times and together we are a stronger performance. I would be happy now to receive your questions and comments. You are able to submit questions through the virtual shareholder meeting website. And we have a number of questions that have already been submitted and we'll turn straight to them. So the first question comes from the Carpenters Union Pension Fund and asks how the company thinks about Stakeholder Capitalism as an alternative shareholder capitalism on how we balance our commitment to stakeholders and shareholders.
So as you've heard through my prepared remarks, The company has a strong commitment to stakeholders all of our stakeholders on the manifest itself in many ways. Our purpose led performance principle says that we will deliver Top tier financial results benefit for the shareholders, while doing the right thing for our people, for our communities and for our planet, which goes straight to other stakeholders. The best we don't see a disconnect between serving the shareholder and serving other stakeholders. The best employees want to work for good companies that are doing the right thing And consumers want to buy brands of companies that are good actors in the world and behave Well, this is especially true of younger consumers. I'll add that McCormick is no stranger to this topic.
C. P. McCormick said as long ago, 1949, a quote that could be relevant today The purpose of our business is to make the society we live in better, not just to earn a profit for the shareholders. And this is completely relevant today. Our corporate governance guidelines have recognized the importance of stakeholders for many years and a few years not that long ago the Business Roundtable organized a group of 181 CEOs to restate what they believe the purpose of corporation is in what I think is a historic document that I believe this question is referring to that the purpose of the corporation is to serve a broader Universt's Stakeholders and Just as Shareholder, and I'm proud to say that I was a signer of that original document.
We also have a question now, how has McCormick fared against private brands in terms of shelf space in 2020 now in 2021. Yes, this has really been an interesting phenomenon as we've gone through the pandemic. Consumers have looked for things that they can trust and for security and part of that has been a return to a major brand. And so across the whole industry, brands have done better than private label in terms of performance. In our business specifically, we have gained market share in most markets and in most categories of the world.
There are a few exceptions. In some parts of the world, we've been challenged on being able to supply the extraordinary demand. And so our shelf stocks have run out and supers have had to buy whatever was available. And in those cases, we've lost some share. But I'm confident that we're going to redeem that again.
It's not just a COVID phenomenon though. We were already seeing a trend before the COVID crisis hit Consumers, especially younger consumers returning to brands for which they had nostalgia, which tends to be large, most trusted our brands, along which are of course McCormick. So we believe that this is a trend that's going to continue and will be a benefit for us as a company. Now there are a number of questions and I'll try to group these this idea altogether about I'll read this one, but a number of questions are similar. While shopping at our local grocery store and experiencing many out of stock on performing products as manufacturing products with consumer demand.
So there are a lot of questions along this line. I'm only going to for 1. But in our consumer business in the U. S, the surge in demand has been extraordinary at far beyond our capabilities business as a manufacturer or any manufacturer to keep up with. Many of you saw during the early days of the pandemic how the shelves on almost every product category in the store We're wiped out.
It was a famous experience of not being able to find toilet paper anywhere. Our brand is not one that consumers stock up on. Our for ANZARO products used to actually do all of that cooking from home and to prepare the foods that have been stocked up on. So the demand for our products has been very long and very sustained. And we have ramped up production capability in the U.
S. Steadily as we got through the year and really by the beginning of this year that added the equivalent of a whole manufacturing facility in the Americas to meet this incredible demand and we are getting caught up. But in the meanwhile to keep our best selling products in stock, we suspended 100 of secondary SKUs And we've had to allocate what's the rationale in the market as we went through last year in order to be fair to all of our customers. We're working through that now and we've restored nearly all of the items that we had on suspension roughly 50% of the holes in the shelf have been filled and we're continuing to work to and we think that over the coming weeks months, you'll see retailer conditions return to normal as we meet this incredible demand. You've heard Mike talk about the huge demand that we still are experiencing even this last quarter with Consumer demand is running very strong.
I'll add to that also that this is really a U. S. And North American phenomena. In the rest of the world, While there's been a surge in demand, we've made investments in capacity and we have the capacity to reach that to achieve that demand. The scale of the markets outside the U.
S. Is different. So we've been able to keep up with the demand in really in all parts of the world outside of North America and have gained significant market share in many of those markets as a result because local competitors have a local people. I'm going to give this next one to Mike. There's a question about where do you see free cash flow in the next 3 years and are buybacks possible in 2021.
Thanks, Lawrence. Well, if you remember from my presentation, we have a slide on operating cash flow where we hit $1,000,000,000 this here and you see the great growth we've had over the past 5 years. So we are bullish on cash flow. We continue to drive it hard. Cash flow should grow at approximately the same rate as our long term growth algorithm for earnings per share, which is 9% to 11%.
We don't give a forecast for cash flow necessarily, but we continue to think we will generate our business great cash flow. As far as uses of the cash Regarding buybacks, I mean, we have capital allocation priorities to use the cash. The first is growth. We're a growth company. We wanted to drive our growth and that's what differentiates us versus our peers.
So we like to use it to drive innovation, to make acquisitions, to make capital investments in our supply chain. So that's the first use of cash. We also like to pay a great dividend to our shareholders. And as you saw, we're a dividend Pratt will continue to do that. The 3rd priority is paying down debt.
When you make great acquisitions like Frank's and French's or Crono or Cholula, you pay down debt and we're committed to that. Buying back stock is at the 4th tier. If we if there's enough cash at the end of buying Scott, we will, but we're really focused on those top three priorities at this point. I'm going to go to this next question and Mike I'm going to throw this one to you as well. When can we expect a dividend increase?
We don't forecast that either. But you can see from again my presentation where we paid Dividends every year since 1925 and we're a dividend aristocrat and have increased them for the past 35 straight years and we did that again in November of 2020. So I would say look to your e mail in November of 2021 and we want to continue that trend obviously. The next question is about online presence. How are you increasing your online presence?
Have you battled against the increasing presence of convenience stores and big box stores or any other unconventional or growing channel. Actually, a big part of our strategy and our growth success Is that we are going after all channels and many of these channels are growing faster than conventional grocery. The online channel is growing. We look at online in 3 different ways. The first is that as we consider the pure play e commerce sellers.
I don't like to name specific customers in on the forum, but you all know who some of those are because you're probably buying from them. The pure play customers are great customer of ours. We're experiencing tremendous growth with them. And so we actually are We don't see that as a threat to our business. We in fact see it as an opportunity.
The second is the E commerce efforts of our regular brick and mortar customers, what we call the omni channel. Really, I think most retailers recognize that they have to have some sort of online component to their business in order to We're successful long term and we're working with all of them on their omnichannel programs. This actually has become the largest part of to see our e commerce growth. And then the third is a direct to consumer effort where we actually sell directly to consumers through our digital properties, our websites, Our pages on things like Facebook and Instagram and where consumers can click directly on a recipe and order products straight from us. We see all of those as positive contributors to our business and to grace them all.
The next one is what emerging Market countries offer the most potential for the company. Well, I'm going to say that first of all, we're in most of the markets that we want to be in. So our efforts in emerging countries is to strengthen and scale for the business that we already have. I will just pick out 2 to comment on. China is a large market for us where We have a very large consumer business under the McCormick brand and also under the Cao brand, which is a Chinese company acquired some years ago.
And in addition to that, we serve our global flavor solutions customers for their China business. The products that we sell in China are predominantly made in China and we have manufacturing there to support that. And This is a market with over a 1000000000 people, rising income, tremendously attractive consumer market for us. The other that I will talk about is Mexico. And we don't show Mexico in our results because it's a joint venture.
We have a fifty-fifty partnership with Herdez, one of the largest food companies in Mexico for the joint venture's call McCormick and Mexico. It is not consolidated. So if you look at our Financial statements you'll see a line called unconsolidated income. Most of that is our joint venture in Mexico. It is a very large Growing business again Mexico has growing population.
Our brands are very strong there and We're really pleased with that. And I think that those two markets are even though as large as our business is in those markets, Those remarks continue to provide big opportunities for our growth outside of the U. S. Let's see, is there a way to get new and innovative products to try? I would be thrilled for you to go to your local store and buy them and I'm hopeful that A year from now, we will be having this meeting in person.
I'm not going to commit to that because there's many a twist and turn in this pandemic. But as you know that when we've had these meetings in person, we've had the tradition of giving a give back with our some of our new products and I hope that we would give shareholders the chance to enjoy that experience. I think also Lawrence, you can go to mccormickkitchens .com I think it is or the McCormick site you can get innovative new products. You can buy them things like Everyday Bagel with Frank's Red Hot Sauce. So it's a great to trial some of our new consumer products in the U.
S. That's a great point. Thank you for answering this one. Are there any plans to consolidate manufacturing operations to increase cash flow? I'd say that the answer to that right now is no.
We're really investing in additional manufacturing Capacity, we have a new flavor solutions plant under construction In the U. K, we have a major distribution center under construction here in the U. S. There is a need to repurpose some of the manufacturing operations that we've got to reflect the change in consumer demand and customer demand and the shift that has happened as a result of the pandemic that we've just gone through. But there's no plans to consolidate any We'll pick on this one.
Do you see M and A in overseas company? So And this will unfortunately be the last question that we have time for. Our M and A is a contributor to our growth strategy. So I'm often asked what's your M and A strategy? And I said, well, let me tell you what our growth strategy is.
M and A supports that growth strategy. And Our strategy is to be a global company. So we certainly will consider M and A outside of the U. S. The 2 that we have Happened to have just done our U.
S. Base, but we have looked at many opportunities outside the U. S. And we'll continue to do so and perhaps the next one will be outside. So with that, we're at time.
And so I'd like to bring us to a conclusion. And in conclusion, our focus on growth, performance and people is relentless as we continue to drive McCormick forward. We're confident the momentum of our business is sustainable and our strategies position us to continue our growth trajectory and build long term value for our shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for attending the meeting and for your continued support of our great company. I declare the meeting adjourned.