Thank you. Good afternoon and thanks to everyone for joining us today. On our call today are WD-forty Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gary Ridge Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Jay Remboldt and President and Chief Operating Officer, Steve Brass. In addition to the financial information presented on today's call, we encourage investors to review our earnings presentation, earnings press release and Form 10 ks for the period ending August 31, 2021. These documents are or will be available our Investor Relations website at investor.
Wd40company.com. A replay and transcript of today's call will also be made available at that location shortly after this call. On today's call, we will discuss certain non GAAP measures. The description and reconciliations of these non GAAP measures are available in our SEC filings as well as our earnings presentation. As a reminder, today's call includes forward looking statements about our expectations for the company's future performance.
Of course, actual results could differ materially. The Company's expectations, beliefs and projections are expressed in good faith, but there can be no assurance that they will be achieved or accomplished. Please refer to the risk factors detailed in our SEC filings for further discussion. Finally, for anyone listening to a webcast replay or reviewing a written transcript for this call, please note that all information presented is current only as of today's date, October 19, 2021. The company disclaims any duty or obligation to update any forward looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Gary.
Thank you, Wendy, And thank you for everyone joining us on today's call. Today, I'm happy to share with you that we reported record net sales of 488 $100,000 for the full fiscal year 2021, up 19% over last fiscal year. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had a favorable impact of $19,700,000 on net sales for the fiscal year 2021. On a constant currency basis, net sales would have been up 15%. Net income was 70.2% in fiscal year 2021, Reflecting an increase of 16%.
Diluted earnings per share in 2021 were $5.09 compared to $4.40 last year. For the Q4, we reported net sales of $115,200,000 Which reflects an increase of 3% from the Q4 of last year. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had a favorable impact of $6,500,000 on net sales for the 4th quarter. On a constant currency basis, net sales would have decreased 3% compared to last year. Net income was $8,400,000 compared to $19,700,000 in the Q4 of last fiscal year, reflecting a decrease of 57%.
Diluted earnings per share in the 4th quarter were $0.61 compared to 1 point 42 in the Q4 of last year. If you follow our business closely, you'll know where fluctuations in performance quarter to quarter Are not unusual. This has been especially true since COVID-nineteen pandemic began. Fiscal year 2021 was a lumpy year with abnormal swings in net sales from period to period. We've seen more variability between quarters than we We know this quarter looks different.
However, we're going to share with you today why our results are actually an exciting step forward In our infinite game, in the Q4, we made a thoughtful and deliberate decision to invest significantly in sales momentum we have been Experiencing an increase in our investments in brand awareness and market penetration. Though these decisions negatively impacted our net income in the 4th quarter, We believe the investments in these key strategic areas will drive strong top line growth in the future. If you follow With an infinite mindset, you'll be pleased with our results this year. Our infinite minded decisions have delivered a compounded annual growth rate of total shareholder return Of 14% since 1998. This unprecedented year brought many unexpected opportunities and challenges.
I am so proud of our tribe and what they have been able to accomplish during these extraordinary times. In many ways, The challenges we have experienced since the pandemic began has brought out the best in our tribe and has enabled us to learn together and pivot through some very challenging times. Steve will talk with you in a few minutes about the specific sales trends we experienced in the 4th quarter in each of our trading blocks. But first, I'm going to share an update with you on our strategic initiatives. Our strategic initiatives are the continuing plan we have in place to achieve the company's long term aspirations.
As most of you will recall, we recently adjusted our long Term revenue aspirations to drive net sales to a range of between $650,000,000 $700,000,000 by the end of fiscal year 2025. We strive to do this while following our fifty fivethirtytwenty five business model. While these financial objectives remain, we recently decided To refresh our strategic initiatives, so they more accurately and holistically reflect the top priorities of our organization. Before I share with you our refreshed strategic initiatives, I will first share with you the progress we've made against our current strategic initiatives during fiscal year Call year 2021, sales of WD-forty Multi Use Product increased 22% globally to $371,000,000 Strategic initiative number 2 is to grow the WD-forty Specialist product line. In fiscal year 2021, sales of WD-forty Specialist increased 16% globally to $42,500,000 Strategic initiative number 3 is to broaden product and revenue base.
In fiscal year 2021, sales of products included under this initiative increased 13% globally to $63,200,000 Strategic initiative number 4, attract, develop and maintain outstanding tribe members. When we last In January 2022, our overall global employee engagement score was 93%. Our tribe continued to adapt during the pandemic and we have made every effort to make our tribe members' well-being a top priority. In January 2021, we did a check-in survey with the tribe, which reconfirmed engagement continues to be at this level. 98% of our tribe shared they were excited about the company's future.
Strategic initiative number 5, operational excellence. Our goal under this initiative is to strive for continuous improvement and we measure ourselves against this initiative Following the fifty fivethirtytwenty five business model, in fiscal year 2021, we reported gross margin of 54%, Cost of doing business of 35% and EBITDA of 20%. Now our strategic refresh. We decided to refresh our strategic initiatives so they more accurately and holistically reflect the top priorities of our organization moving forward. We believe our long term Financial objectives can only be achieved if we make infinite minded decisions that create and protect long term shareholder value.
We have always considered ourselves a purpose driven organization, which puts its people first. Our philosophy has always been if we take care of our employees, Our employees will take care of our customers. Our philosophy has not changed. However, we wanted our strategic drivers to better reflect this ideology. So with that, I'm pleased to share with you our refreshed strategic drivers, which can also be found within our quarterly earnings presentation.
Strategic initiative number 1, build a business for the future. Our goal under this initiative To build an enduring business that we will be proud to pass on to the next generation. By using our purpose and values as a decision making filter, We will make infinite minded decisions that create and protect long term stakeholder value. As mentioned in our Q4, increased investment in our brand building to support our must win battles because we are playing the infinite game. The desired for this strategic initiative is to further embed infinite minded decisions into our business and to fully integrate our ESG initiatives into the heart of our Strategic initiative number 2, attract, develop and engage outstanding tribe members.
We know our people make us great. By building and nurturing and inclusive and diverse purpose driven learning and teaching an organization, our tribe members will succeed together while excelling as individuals. This initiative has always been important to our organization's long term success. We believe in the will of our people. Will is not tangible.
You won't find it on our balance sheet. It encompasses morale, motivation, collaboration, inspiration, commitment and the desire to offer discretionary effort. Some see human capital as expense. We see our people, our tribe as an invaluable asset because we know that our success is the result The engagement and the commitment of our people. The desired outcome of this strategic initiative is to grow employee engagement to greater than 95%.
Ticket initiative number 3 is to strive for operational excellence. Our goal under this initiative is to foster a culture of continuous improvement In which operational excellence is the responsibility of a member. Operational excellence means optimizing collaboration, resources, systems and processes As well as prioritizing the use of our time, talent and treasure and technology using our fiftyfive-thirty-twenty five business model as a framework, We measure ourselves against this operational excellence initiative. Strategic initiative number 4 is to grow WD-forty multiuse product. Our goal under this The initiative is to make the blue and yellow can with a little red top available in more places to more people who will find more uses more often.
We will grow the WD-forty multi use product line through continued geographic and digital expansion, increased market penetration, Educating end users about new uses and through the development of new and unique delivery systems that make the product easier to use. The desired outcome for this strategic initiative is to grow sales of WD-forty Multi Use Product to approximately $525,000,000 by 2025. Strategic initiative number 5 is to grow the WD-forty Specialist product line. Our goal under this initiative is to leverage the WD-forty brand by new products and categories, which build and reinforce the core brand positioning and create growth through continued geographic and digital expansion. As part of the brand The project we completed in fiscal year 2020, WD-forty BIKE was absorbed into the WD-forty Specialist line of products.
Accordingly, we will begin to report WD-forty BIKE as part of our specialist results beginning the Q1 of fiscal year 2022. The desired outcome for this strategic initiative is to grow sales of WD-forty Specialist to approximately 125,000,000 Strategic initiative number 6 is to expand and support portfolio opportunities that help us grow. Our goal under this initiative is to expand and support brands that Our focus will be to expand 3M1 and GT85 or future maintenance brands with portfolio opportunities that fit well within our unique multichannel distribution network. In addition, we will support home care and cleaning product brands provide healthy profit returns, including well known brands such as 1,001, Spot Shot, Sol Vault, 2,000 Flushes, Carpet Fresh, X14 Lava and Novak. The desired outcome for this strategic initiative is to grow sales in this category to approximately $50,000,000 by 2025.
Our decision to report WD-forty BIKE as part of the WD-forty Specialist results going forward has lowered the desired outcome for this initiative as compared to the prior corresponding initiative. Supporting our strategic initiatives are our must win battles. These are focused action plans that support our strategic initiatives. I will now pass the call to Steve, who will share an overview of our sales results and update you on our must win battles.
Thanks, Gary, and good afternoon. Today, we close out a spectacular year of incredible growth for our company. Globally, sales of WD-forty brand products grew 22% in fiscal year 2021 compared to last year. We experienced very high end user demand for our maintenance products due to the higher level of renovation and maintenance activities driven by the pandemic. In addition, we continue to see recovery in many markets due to improvements in public health and safety standards as well as and expanded brick and mortar distribution and continued success within the e commerce channel.
As Gary mentioned earlier, the pandemic continues to create abnormal swings in our net sales results from period to period, which is evidenced in our 4th quarter net sales results. Let's take a closer look at what happened in our trade blocks in the 4th quarter starting with the Americas. Net sales in the Americas, which includes the United States, Latin America and Canada were down 5% in the 4th quarter to $54,200,000 Sales of maintenance products decreased 5% in the Americas due to decreased sales of the V-forty product in the U. S. And Canada, which declined 5% 17% respectively.
These declines were driven by several factors. In the United States, we were up against a very strong comparable period, While we continue to experience very strong and user demand for our maintenance products, we were unable to fully meet those demands due to the current state of the global supply chain, The implications of which were felt most significantly in the United States. The biggest challenge facing many consumer product companies today is the continued That's the global supply chain is experiencing. These supply chain issues are contributing to rising input costs, manufacturing fees and higher warehousing and distribution expenses, which Jay will discuss in greater detail shortly. In Canada, net sales of maintenance products declined because of the timing of customer orders.
In addition, we were up against a very strong year over year comparable period in Canada. In Latin America, we experienced strong sales of all our maintenance products during the Q4, which increased 24% compared to the prior year. This growth was primarily due to strong sales in our newest direct market, Mexico. In addition, sales in Latin America in a corresponding period of the prior fiscal year were negatively impacted by disruptions and lockdowns related to the early stages of the COVID-nineteen pandemic. As conditions continue to improve and restrictions in the region decrease, we continue to see increased end user demand in Latin America.
Sales of our home care and cleaning products in the Americas decreased 2% in the 4th quarter compared to the prior year. We continue to consider our home care and cleaning products as Harvest Brands that continue to generate meaningful contributions and cash flows, But generally expected to become a smaller part of the business over time. For the full fiscal year, net sales in the Americas were up 7% to $214,600,000 In total, our American segment met up 47% of our global business in the 4th quarter. Over the long term, we anticipate sales within this segment will grow between 5% to 8% annually. Now on to EMEA.
Net sales in EMEA, which includes Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India were up 6% in the 4th quarter to 45,100,000 Changes in foreign currency exchange rate had a favorable impact on sales for the E and A segment from period to period. On a constant currency basis, sales would have decreased by 6% compared to last year, primarily due to translation impacts caused by unfavorable changes between the pound sterling and the U. S. Dollar. However, when also considering transactional impacts caused by changes between the euro and pound sterling, Sales were relatively constant, only down 1% compared to the prior year period.
The 1% decrease in EMEA sales after all currency impacts are removed was primarily caused by decreased sales in the EMEA direct markets, which were mostly offset by increased sales of maintenance products in the EMEA distributor markets. Sales levels were higher in the Q4 of this year in the EMEA distributor market due to the severe lockdown measures that occurred during the Q4 of fiscal year 2020 as compared to relatively open conditions in the Q4 of this year. In the 4th quarter net Sales in our EMEA distributor markets accounted for 26% of the region sales. In our EMEA direct markets, we experienced a sales decline from period to period because sales levels were much higher in the Q4 of last year due to the lifting of severe lockdown measures in the region. In the 4th quarter, net sales in our EMEA direct markets accounted for 74% of the region sales.
For the full fiscal year, net sales in EMEA were up 33 percent to $208,300,000 resulting in the most successful year in the history of the trade bloc. In total, our EMEA segment made up 39% of our global business in the 4th quarter. Over the long term, we anticipate sales within this segment will grow between 8% to 11% annually. Now on to Asia Pacific. Net sales in Asia Pacific, which includes Australia, China and other countries in the region were up 32% in the 4th quarter to $15,900,000 Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had a favorable For the Asia Pacific segment from period to period.
On a constant currency basis, sales would have increased by 24% compared to last year. In Australia, net sales were $5,300,000 in the 4th quarter, up 2% compared to last year. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had a favorable impact on sales Australia from period to period. In local currency, net sales in Australia declined 7% compared to last year. Australia was up against a very strong year over year comparable for sales.
In addition, some regions in Australia were under severe lockdown measures during the 4th These have been much more severe than what the country has experienced in the past and has contributed to the decline in sales. In our Asia distributor markets, net sales of $5,800,000 in the 4th quarter, up 172% compared to last year, Primarily due to a nearly 200% increase in sales of WD-forty Multi Use Products in the region. These sales increases were Driven by the easing of COVID-nineteen lockdown measures and restrictions. These reduced lockdown measures positively impacted economic conditions during the Q4 of this year and resulted in increased demand and higher sales, particularly in South Korea and Indonesia. In China, net sales were $4,800,000 in the 4th Quarter up 2% compared to last year.
Changes in foreign currency exchange rate had a favorable impact on sales in China from period to period. In local currency, net sales in China declined 7% compared to last year. Overall, China is currently doing well and experiencing no major impacts from the pandemic. The decline in sales in the 4th quarter was primarily driven by the timing of customer orders and promotional activities. For the full fiscal year, net sales in Asia Pacific were up 26% to 65,300,000.
In total, our Asia Pacific segment netted 14% of our global business in the 4th quarter. Over the long term, we anticipate sales within this segment will grow between 10% to 13% annually. As we begin our journey into fiscal year 2022 and seek to Execute and deliver against our 2025 revenue growth aspirations to drive net sales to between 650 and $700,000,000 we are more focused than ever before on our must win battles. These hyper focused actions support our overall strategy And are the key drivers of revenue growth. Our largest growth opportunity in 1st must win battle is a geographic expansion of the blue and yellow cam with a little red top.
As Gary shared with you earlier, sales of W40 Multi Use Product for the full fiscal year were $371,000,000 up 22% compared to last year. They are focused like never before in our top 20 global growth markets. We never stopped investing during the pandemic. We increased our marketing investments By over $6,000,000 this year, including nearly $4,000,000 in the 4th quarter alone. These investments are focused on building brand awareness and market penetration in 95 markets.
We're doubling down on the future because of the tremendous growth we've seen in markets like France, United Kingdom and Russia. So in fiscal year 2021, we saw growth of 36%, 28% and 43%. In addition, we've seen tremendous growth in Mexico, which has been the fastest growing direct market we've ever launched in the history of the company. In fiscal year 2022, we will continue to invest in building our flagship brand with end users around the world.
Our second must win battle is
to grow the V40 multi use product through premiumization. Premiumization creates opportunities for revenue growth, Gross margin expansion and most importantly, it delights our end users. For the full fiscal year, sales of WD-forty Smart Straw and Easy Reach when combined $180,700,000 up nearly 19% compared to last year and representing nearly 49% of total global sales of W-forty Multi Use Product. Our Smart Straw next generation delivery system is currently available in Canada And it's been rolled out in the United States. In fact, it will be available later in fiscal year 2022 in Europe.
Smart Straw next generation supports our objective to grow premium delivery system penetration to greater than 60% of our WD-forty Multi Use Product Sales by 2025.
Our 3rd must win battle is
to grow the WD-forty Specialist product line. For the full fiscal year, sales of the V40 Specialists were up 16% compared to last year and up 21% if you include sales of the V40 Bike As we will be doing going forward. Absent the supply chain disruptions and constraints we experienced in the United States, 5040 specialists would have grown even more. We recently completed some very interesting research, which suggests that end users of W40 specialists are some of our Loyal to be 40 multi use product fans. As you might recall, in early fiscal year 2020, we debuted new packaging The W40 Specialist, which gave us stronger brand presence for both W40 Multi Use Product and W40 Specialist, aligning them as a Blue and Yellow brand with a little red top.
We believe we have yet to see the full benefit of this brand architecture project because of the pandemic and associated supply chain issues. Our final must win battle is focused on driving digital commerce. For the full fiscal year, global e commerce sales were up 25% compared to last year. And we believe we are well positioned to benefit from the significant shift to online behaviors in the post pandemic world. We're focused on developing a data driven marketing strategy that empowers us to engage directly with end users in meaningful ways online.
That strategy has already delivered a year over year increase of nearly 80% in website visits, doubled the views of our digital content globally And have accelerated and deepened our engagement with end users on many digital platforms around the world.
In closing, I want to share
a few thoughts with you about the future. Fiscal year 2021 was an exceptional year for the blue and yellow brand with a little red top with increased end user demand across all our trade blocks. We remain optimistic that many of the new end users who interacted with our brands during the pandemic will become permanent users of our maintenance solutions. However, it's also important to note, we haven't spent the last 18 months twiddling our thumbs And naively thinking that pandemic related windfalls will last forever. Rather, we spend the time becoming laser focused on the areas where we believe Future revenue growth will come from.
We are investing our time, talent, treasure and technology to support specific growth objectives Because we believe investments in these areas will drive our growth in the future. So how did you top your best year ever With a great start to the New Year. I'm pleased to report that demand continues to be exceptionally strong and September was the 2nd largest salesman in the company's history. Now I'll turn the call over to Jay, who will provide you with a financial update on the business.
Thanks, Steve. We are pleased that in fiscal 2021, we saw robust demand across our maintenance products, coupled with strong operating performance. In the Q4, we were up against some very strong sales comparisons as well as some gross margin headwinds, which I'll speak about in a minute. But first, let's start with a discussion about how we performed against the limited fiscal year 2021 guidance we shared with you last quarter. Due to the uncertainty regarding the pandemic's Near term impact on our business, we did not issue comprehensive financial guidance for fiscal 2021.
However, we did share that we thought market conditions suggested that for the full fiscal year, net sales would fall in the range of between $475,000,000 to $490,000,000 Today, we reported fiscal year Revenue of $488,100,000 up 19% compared to fiscal 2020 and coming in at the top end of our projected range. Now let's review our fifty fivethirtytwenty five business model, the long term targets we use to guide our business. As you may recall, the 55 represents gross margin, which we target to be at 55% of net sales. The 30 represents our cost of doing business, which is our total operating expenses, Excluding depreciation and amortization, our goal is to drive our cost of doing business over time Toward 30% of net sales. And finally, the 25% represents our target for EBITDA.
First, the fiscal year, our gross margin. In the Q4, our gross margin was 51.2% compared to 56.3% last year. This represents a decline of 510 basis points year over year. This large decrease in gross margin was primarily due to the inflationary headwinds and the current state of the global supply chain. Like others, we're experiencing significant increases in input and transportation costs as well as increased fees from our 3rd party manufacturers.
In order to combat these macroeconomic factors, we began implementing price increases, but they'll take time to implement and to make their way into our reported results. Changes in major input costs, which include specialty chemicals and air saw cans were the primary driver of this decline and negatively impacted our margin by 300 basis points. Specialty chemical costs negatively impacted our margin by 240 basis points period over period with the remaining 60 basis points driven by the increased cost of aerosol cans. Also We impacting gross margin were higher warehousing and inbound freight along with higher discount charges, primarily in the Americas, which negatively impacted our gross margin by 180 basis points when combined. These increased costs reflect the current state of the Supply chain environment we've been operating in.
These cost increases have been further complicated by labor and truck driver shortages, primarily in the U. S, but we've seen it elsewhere. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates, primarily in EMEA, also negatively impacted margin by 70 basis points due to the fluctuations in exchange rates For the euro and U. S. Dollar against the pound sterling.
This is because in EMEA, most of our cost of goods sold are sourced in pound sterling, while approximately 65% of our revenues are generated in currencies other than the pound sterling. These negative impacts to gross margin were partially offset by miscellaneous impacts and price increases, which combined positively impacted gross margin by 40 basis points. Now let's talk about gross margin expectations. The environment remains dynamic with significant inflationary pressures, increased cost of goods And continued uncertainty around logistics. We expect to begin to recover gross margin with tactical moves over the short term with price increases.
While it may take a few quarters, our intention is to build gross margin back to our guided range by the end of the fiscal year. I have every confidence that over the long term, we will be able to strategically expand gross margin above our target of 55% through premiumization, Product mix and continued geographic expansion. Now I'll address the 30 or our cost of doing business. In the Q4, our cost of doing business increased to 39%, up from the 33% last year. Period versus period, our sales increased by 3%, while our operating expenses increased by 22%, causing an increase in our cost of doing business percentage.
Our long term goal is to drive our cost of doing business percentage for 30% of net sales. For the Q4, 79% of our cost of doing business came from 3 areas: People costs or the investments we make in our tribe. This includes the impact of paying higher earned incentive compensation. Our incentive plan applies to every member of our tribe at every level of the organization, and we couldn't be more pleased to reward their outstanding individual and collective efforts. The investments we make in marketing, advertising and promotion As a percentage of sales, our A and P investment was 8.9% in the 4th quarter.
This quarter, we made the deliberate decision To significantly increase our A and P investment, which increased by 61% compared to the Q4 of last year as we chose to accelerate our efforts in building long term brand awareness and market penetration. This investment represents over half of the increase And the cost of doing business in the Q4. And finally, the freight costs to get our products to our customers. Higher freight costs continue to impact our cost of doing business due to constraints and limited capacity in global distribution markets. This brings us to EBITDA, the last of our 50 five-thirty-twenty five measures.
EBITDA was 12% of net sales for the 4th quarter, Which is down significantly compared to the Q4 of last fiscal year, primarily due to our increased A and P investments And the lower gross margin we reported in the 4th quarter. We've always been good stewards of our resources, frugal in our spending and conservative in our financial commitments. We expect to move closer to our historic EBITDA levels in the future. That completes the discussion on our business model. Now let's discuss some items that fall below the EBITDA line.
The provision for income taxes was 25.9% in the 4th quarter compared to 20.5% last year. Increase in our effective tax rate was primarily due to fluctuations in book income from quarter to quarter and the effect of a corporate tax rate change in the U. K. We expect that our effective tax rate will be approximately 21% to 22% for the full fiscal 2022 compared to an effective rate of 18.8% in fiscal year rate of 18.8 percent in fiscal year 2021. The higher rate for fiscal 2022 is mostly related to non repeatable and expiring tax benefits realized in fiscal 2021 that are not expected to reoccur in 2022.
Net income for the 4th quarter was 8 $400,000 compared to $19,700,000 last year. Diluted earnings per common share for the 4th quarter were $0.61 compared to $1.42 for the same period last year. Our net income and diluted Earnings per share were unfavorably impacted in the Q4 compared to the last year due to all the reasons outlined above. However, net income and diluted earnings per share were very strong for the full fiscal year. We had a great year with earnings growth of 16%.
And now a word about our balance sheet and our capital allocation strategy. Company's financial condition and liquidity remains strong. Our capital allocation strategy includes a comprehensive approach to balance investing in long term growth, while reporting strong returns to our shareholders. We continue to return capital to our shareholders through regular dividends. On October 4th, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.72 per share Payable October 29 to stockholders of record at the close of business on October 15, 2021.
In addition, I'm happy to share with you that our Board of Directors recently approved a new share repurchase plan. When the pandemic began, we elected to suspend stock repurchases under our previous purchase plan in order to conserve cash while we monitored the long term impacts of the pandemic. The newly authorized share repurchase plan reflects our confidence and our long term growth outlook, our commitment to our capital allocation strategy and our capacity to return capital to our stockholders. Under the new plan, which will be effective November 1, the company is authorized to acquire up to $75,000,000 of its pending shares through August 31, 2023. In fiscal year 2022, we expect to invest approximately $14,000,000 in capital projects, the majority of which will be used to complete the procurement of the proprietary machinery and equipment we are using to manufacture our next generation smart straw delivery systems.
We'd originally expected this project would be completed by fiscal 2021. However, due to the impacts of the pandemic, This investment will continue into FY 'twenty two. We've historically had a very asset light business model, which has typically required very low levels of capital investment, roughly between 1% 2% of sales. And we believe beginning in fiscal 2023, we will see CapEx return to these levels. Now let's turn to fiscal 2022 guidance.
We want to remind everyone that there are dynamics outside of our control that may impact our fiscal 2022 results, including the impact of fluctuating foreign currency exchange rates, Continued inflationary headwinds and other unforeseen events. This guidance does not include any future acquisitions or divestitures. And with that, we expect net sales growth projected to be between 7% 11% with net sales between $522,000,000 $542,000,000 Gross margin for the full fiscal year is expected to be between 53% 54%. Advertising and promotion investment is projected to be between 5.5% 6% of net sales. The provision for income tax is expected to be between 21% 22%.
Net income is projected to be between $71,700,000 $73,600,000 And diluted earnings per share is expected to be between $5.24 $5.38 based on an estimated 13,700,000 weighted average shares outstanding. Well, that completes The financial overview. Now back to Gary.
Thanks, Jay. In summary, what did you hear from us on this call? You heard that we have delivered a compound annual growth rate of total shareholder return of 14% since 1998. You heard that net sales were $488,100,000 up 19% compared to last fiscal year and a new record for the company. You heard that global sales of WD-forty brand products were up 22% compared to last fiscal year.
You heard that we have refreshed our strategic initiatives to more accurately and holistically reflect the top priorities of our organization. You heard that for the full year, global e commerce sales grew by 25%. You had heard that we increased our A and P investment in the 4th quarter to support specific growth Objectives because we believe these investments will drive our future growth. You heard that we expect we will continue to see pressure on gross margin due to inflationary headwinds and a challenging supply chain environment. You heard that we have issued guidance for fiscal year 20 22 and believe that net sales will grow between 7% 11% and that we're off to a very strong start in the new fiscal year.
Finally, I'd like to share with you the biggest learning I have taken away from this fiscal year. One thing the pandemic has proven to me is that the diversification across geographies and trade channels, which we built into our business Creates a protective moat, which allows us to succeed even in the most abnormal of times. In closing, I'd like Share with you a quote from my friend, Simon Sinek. Courage, as it relates to leading with the infinite mindset, Is the willingness to completely change our perception of how the world works. It is the courage to reject Milton Freeman's stated purpose of business And embrace an alternative definition.
Thank you for joining us today, and we will now be pleased to take your questions.
Ridge. Our first question comes from the line of Linda Bolton Weiser with D. A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.
Great. Thank you. Hi. How are you doing?
Hey, Linda.
So I guess I'll just start with your update of the long term Strategy and some of the targets. If you could just remind me, I don't have the previous Target is right in front of me, but it does seem like growing the WZ-forty core product line, The goal for 2025, it does strike me that that's lower than it was. Can you just remind us what it was previously Relative to the new goal of $525,000,000 And then talk about what has made that change because Even though you had some disruption during the pandemic, you also had isolation renovation benefits. So what is the change in thinking that is changing some of these long term targets. Thanks.
Thanks, Linda. They're substantially the same, to be honest. The 530,000,000 Is substantially the same figure we had when we had our $700,000,000 goal. We did put that range in of $650,000,000 to 700, But the only real change to the long term goal was moving WD-forty bike out of The strategic drop that it was in and including it with Specialist. And in fact, the Specialist aspirational goal went up By $25,000,000 from $100,000,000 to $125,000,000 So the bottom line is things have remained and our Aspirations are pretty much in line with what they were before.
Okay. So then what's the takeaway then on the strategic refresh? I mean, is there something you want to call out to us that maybe I'm missing or are things pretty much in line across the board?
Basically, what we did is we wanted to kind of force ranked them a little bit. So as you can see, our attention to ESG and Your collaboration has moved to the top because it's become a big part of our strategic planning process. But as far as the aspirations for revenue growth are concerned, they basically stayed the same. We've added in the focus that we've now brought on digital and e commerce. As you know, that's been a big push for us, it's been very successful.
So, in most cases, they were really bringing them up to date with Holistically, what we are thinking these days and including things that have come into our business and into our thinking that we wanted to make sure Well, headlines not only to the outside world, but headlines to the leadership team internally as well.
Okay, great. So it sounds like it's that order in which you talk about the goals that is the real difference, as you said, right?
And some words that now bring out and put into play our intention around things like The future of the company in relation to ESG, DE and I, all those things that have become importantly and rightly so, Headlines for most companies. And to be honest with you, things that have been present in our company for a long, long time, yet we haven't really Put them in print.
Great. Thank you. So Can I just ask you about, I mean, in the quarter, you alluded to some conscious investment to support the business and the brand? And the A and P ratio indeed was quite high. I mean, there was a lot of spending.
Can you talk about what you spent on and how much of that is like digital And how much is to support near term growth versus long term brand building? And then if you spent When will we see will we see an immediate effect, a positive effect on sales growth like in the next couple of quarters? Or is it more a longer
I'll hand over to Steve, and he's going to tell talk about what we specifically invested in. But as you can see, we see next year our revenue growth of between 7% And 11%. So obviously, some of what we're doing, we're expecting to have some short term impact as we enter the new fiscal year. And as Steve shared with you, September was the 2nd largest revenue month we've had in the company's history. So we're off to a good start.
But Specifically, I'll ask Steve to talk about the substantial investments we made, which was pretty out of character for us, But we wanted to be deliberate. We said now is the time. We're not afraid to invest when we see the opportunities are there. And some of the work we did during the year really highlighted areas where we felt we could really strengthen Our growth going forward by bringing forward and investing into new areas. So I'm going to turn it over to Steve to talk about that.
Thank you, Gary. Hi, Linda. The 3 real areas of focus were kind of Where the investments fell. The first one was in sampling. So particularly with professional end users around the world, which drives faster end user
penetration, especially with professional users. So that has the
double whammy effect of So that has the double whammy effect of driving both short term penetration and consumption And also long term because once we win new users, we tend to keep them. The second area has been digital investments. We've expanded our digital asset base globally, particularly a lot of video, world counting videos around the world and also a global digital tracking To track the in real time to track the effectiveness of our digital marketing efforts around the world. And then finally, investing in our top 20 markets in terms of major research projects in places such as China and Brazil, And they will help us form our long term future strategy for those key markets, but also just investments in Places like India and Russia also where we believe we have strong both short term and long term growth opportunities. So Really investing in line with those top 20 opportunities around the world.
Okay. And then Longer term, John, even FY 'twenty two, your A and O longer term is usually at 5% to 6% of revenue available, can we have slight higher levels or level of revenue will continue in the average?
No, Linda, in our current guidance that we just issued, we shared that we think that total A and P investment for this fiscal year will be between 5% 6%, which is in the range. Normally, it's been about 5.6% to 5.7
Okay. And then on the gross margin, can you just Repeat what you said. Did you say that you hope that by the Q4 fiscal Q4 you can get to the long term goal, which is the 5% am I understanding that correctly?
I'll let Jay talk about gross margin. Jay?
Yes. Thank you, Gary. While it's going to take a Few quarters to build our gross margin back to kind of the guided range between $53,000,000 $54,000,000 for the year. We do expect over time build to a greater than 55% Margin over the long term. So that is that still remains our target and our intention.
We're just in a period where we're really having a number of unknowns. And at the moment, it's Impossible to really be exact how to at what point we get there. But we feel that we will recover a portion, significant portion of the loss margin And we'll be set to recover and drive north of that 55% Beyond the year.
Okay. Thank you. I'll pass it on. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Linda. Our next question comes from the line of Daniel Rizzo with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Just to get back to what we were just talking about with the A and P costs. So they were up a bit in the Q4, but the guidance is in line with historical averages. Was there some pull forward here that's not going to repeat?
I was just wondering, given What's your outlook is or what you want to achieve over the next 5 years, why it wouldn't be possibly a little bit higher for a longer period of time as opposed to the 5.5 6% they usually guide to.
Because we made specific investments in some areas that were one time investments. For example, the research As Steve mentioned, the production of a large library of video assets, and our normal A and P Investment also has a lot of sampling embedded in it anyhow. So That's why we believe we'll be no, that's why we will be back to the normal range going forward.
All right. And then you mentioned ESG as a key part Of the strategy going forward. I was just wondering what specifically, you're doing or how specifically ESG fits into What will we see expect going? I mean, is there some sort of steps you're taking? Or just any color would be great.
Well, as you know, Daniel, We released and published our first ESG report last year. We currently have a large working group working on a life Cycle analysis in a number of different areas, so that we can really level set where we are, Which will allow us in our next ESG report, which will be published next October, to set our targets around particularly the E. The S and G, as you know, we've got measurable targets and have had really great results around those Over the years, so, yes, we'll be Kelly is heading up that program with a Group of people from all around the company, and we'll be ready in our next ESG report to set some targets that we feel comfortable around.
Okay. And then one final question. Just with the strategic initiatives, it's a little different now. And then with number 6 in particular, You mentioned expanding and supporting portfolio opportunities. I think I know what the answer is here, but would that mean that you're looking at, I guess, more inorganic opportunities where you might be Shifting focus or divesting something or possibly seeing something out there that is actually possible to fit into the portfolio that wasn't there before.
I'll give you an example of that internally. Last year or over the last year and a bit, We've taken the 3 in-one brand and extended the portfolio of the 3 in-one brand to include an impressive range of recreational vehicle maintenance products But now we're the 3 in-one brand and are in wide distribution. So with the GT85 brand in the UK, we've done the same thing, Expanding that in some areas that we see opportunities in. There's not a lot of other activity in the other brands, With the exception, I guess, of Carpet Fresh or Novak in Australia, which is a very strong brand and we continue to No, there is. But there's nothing really magical or mystique in that area.
All right. All right. Thank you very much.
We have a follow-up question coming from Linda Bolton Weiser. Please proceed with your question.
Yes. Hi. Can you just tell us what your oil price planning assumption is, price per barrel for the fiscal year?
We have a range. Jade, do you have a range that we've disclosed?
Sorry. Yeah, we're at the moment, we're in the high end of the range. We usually Plan with about a $10 range. So, yeah, we're comfortable with I wouldn't say we're comfortable with the price of oil that we see today, but it is reflected in our forecast and our outlook.
So you're planning 70 to 80 or 80 to 90?
It's closer to the 70 to 80.
Okay.
And then can I just ask you too, we've been hearing from so many companies about The supply chain challenges and I know you had some disruptions earlier in the pandemic? Is there anything right now that you're being that would cause you some problems. Are you able to handle the various challenges? What are you kind of anticipating that you need to look at for the next year?
Linda, it's whack a mole, Basically, I think and that's not trying to be funny either. But every day, there's something that shows its head to us that we hadn't Anticipated that caused us to have to pivot in one way or do something differently. For the most though, if you look at our the year that just went and the volume increases we had In a supply chain situation that was extremely stressed, our supply chain team did a remarkable job. And each day, we think we're getting better in areas of weakness. So I would say that there's not a Huge threat today at this minute that we see.
However, it's a challenging situation that continues to be managed day to day, Not only because of the supply chain issues that are happening in the U. S. And other parts of the world, but also because of the increased volume where In some places around the world, some countries, we're approaching the volumes we thought we would have achieved in 'twenty 3, 24, 25. So substantial increases, but at most of them.
Okay. Thank you. Good luck with everything.
Thanks Linda.
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our allotted time for questions. We thank you for your participation on today's conference call