You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: We hope you and your families are continuing to stay safe and well.
Before we get started, I want to let you know that we're making some changes to how we present our results.
Today, Linda will start by providing some overall key takeaways for the year.
Next, I'll follow up with some highlights from each of our segments.
Kevin will then address our financial results as well as our outlook for fiscal year '22.
And finally, Linda will return to offer her perspective, and we'll close with Q&A.
Now a few reminders before we go into results.
These statements are based on management's current expectations but may differ from actual results or outcomes.
In addition, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures.
Fiscal '21 was an extraordinary year for Clorox, with the pandemic putting us through the ultimate test of volatility, including rapid changes in consumer demand and significant cost inflation, which was reflected in our Q4 results.
Despite the complexities we faced, we delivered 9% sales growth for the fiscal year on a reported and organic basis, reflecting growth in all four reportable segments.
This was on top of the reported 8% increase we delivered in fiscal '20.
On a two-year stack basis, we delivered 17% sales growth.
With rising cost pressures, we experienced declines in gross margin, particularly in Q4, resulting in a decrease of 200 basis points for the fiscal year, which we will discuss in more detail.
Fiscal year '21 adjusted earnings per share decreased 2% to $7.25.
Recognizing the immediate priorities before us, I would like to reinforce what matters most: long-term profitable growth.
With a business that's significantly larger than before the pandemic and a portfolio of trusted brands exposed to more tailwinds, we have clarity in our strategic imperatives, and I have every confidence in our ability to continue delivering long-term value creation for our shareholders.
When I look at fiscal '21, our performance has shown the strength of our people, brands and products as well as the resilience of our category as we work tirelessly to supply consumers with products across our portfolio.
As a result, we experienced significant growth in demand and strengthened our position among global consumers, with strong household penetration, supported by higher repeat rates across new and existing users.
The last 12 months have also demonstrated the need to accelerate our IGNITE Strategy to address near-term headwinds and capitalize on long-term opportunities.
The industry environment remains dynamic, with significant inflationary pressure and continuing uncertainty.
In the face of these conditions, our top priority is strong execution to mitigate the impact of elevated cost headwinds and continue to improve market share.
The pandemic has also highlighted areas where additional investments can help us be as agile as possible in the future.
We are clear on the opportunities ahead of us to differentiate Clorox and build a stronger, more resilient and more profitable company.
This includes driving our growth runways and making investments to enhance our digital capabilities and drive productivity improvements, which I will discuss shortly.
We are confident that strong execution of our IGNITE Strategy will enable us to achieve our 3% to 5% long-term sales target and deliver long-term shareholder value.
For Q4, faster-than-expected moderating demand for cleaning and disinfecting products had a pronounced impact on sales growth as we moved through the peak of the pandemic and lapped the unprecedented demand we experienced last year.
The magnitude of this quarter's gross margin contraction was a result of faster-than-expected sales moderation, acceleration of inflationary headwinds and improvements in supply, which led to broader product assortment, including the reintroduction of value packs.
I'll discuss shortly the actions we're taking to address these headwinds.
Now let me share a few highlights of our progress on our IGNITE Strategy.
First, with fuel growth being a critical focus to help address elevated cost pressures and ensure the long-term health of our brands, I'm pleased we delivered over $120 million in cost savings in the fiscal year, surpassing our annual target.
Second, we made strong progress on our 2025 goal to know 100 million people, crossing the halfway mark to our goal this fiscal year.
Our higher investment in personalization has led to significantly improved ROI.
It has been one of the contributors to increasingly strong payouts, driving our confidence in continued investments in our brands.
Third, with innovation at the heart of our strategy, we doubled our innovation investments in fiscal '21, and new products were a bigger contributor to our top line, which we expect to continue in fiscal '22.
Next, as consumers have increased their digital usage during the pandemic, we leaned into digital marketing and commerce, resulting in our e-commerce business nearly doubling in the last two years, which today represents about 13% of total company sales.
Finally, we continue to make progress on our ESG goals.
For example, we advanced our commitment to climate action and submitted our proposal on science-based targets for our operations and Scope three emissions to the Science Based Targets initiative in June.
And as a people-centric company, we continue to focus on the wellbeing of our teammates and our values-based inclusive culture.
I'm particularly proud that during this trying year, we achieved our best safety score in recorded history, with a recordable incident rate of 0.26, significantly lower than the 3.3 industry average.
I'm also pleased that in fiscal '21, we continued to have high employee engagement of 87%, putting us at the top quartile of Fortune 500 companies.
Now let me turn to fiscal '22.
We expect inflationary pressure to persist, along with continued moderating demand as we lap COVID-19-related demand surges in the first half of fiscal '21.
While this is reflected in our fiscal '22 outlook, which Kevin will discuss, by the second half of the year, we expect to be within the lower end of the range of our long-term sales targets.
Like others in our industry and beyond, we are experiencing significant increases in input and transportation costs across all categories in our portfolio, which have accelerated since Q3.
And we're holistically and dynamically managing this with a laser focus on rebuilding margin.
We implemented pricing on Glad and announced actions on our Food, Cleaning and International businesses.
This represents about 50% of our portfolio.
We're also pursuing pricing in additional parts of our portfolio, which we'll communicate at the right time.
Based on the constructive conversations we're having with our retail partners and importantly, the strength of our brands, we feel confident about our ability to execute our pricing plans.
In addition, we will continue to drive our hallmark cost savings program.
We expect sequential gross margin improvements as we progress through fiscal '22, with our assumption for gross margin expansion by Q4.
In terms of market share, as we've discussed previously, we have experienced some declines due to supply challenges, but have made notable progress.
With strong investments in internal and external production capacity, including additional manufacturing lines and a significant expansion of our production team, in June, we achieved our highest case fill rate since the start of the pandemic.
I'm pleased to see that in the latest 13-week data, ending July 17, we saw market share gains in seven out of nine businesses.
Certainly, we recognize there's more work to do in parts of the portfolio, such as Glad Trash, and we have adjusted our plans to drive market share improvements over time.
Despite these near-term headwinds, we remain focused on our long-term priorities rooted in our IGNITE Strategy to deliver our long-term growth aspirations.
While some pandemic-related behaviors may revert over the next 12 months, we continue to believe there's been a shift in behaviors that will advantage Clorox longer-term, including a focus on health, wellness and hygiene, more time at home as well as increased adoption of e-commerce and digital platforms.
The pandemic also revealed the urgency to upgrade our digital infrastructure and capabilities.
Last year, I brought in Chief Information and Enterprise Analytics Officer, Chau Banks, who has extensive experience in business-driven digital transformation, to conduct a fresh assessment of our own program that was already underway before the pandemic.
With that assessment now complete, we are accelerating our transformation through planned investments of about $500 million over the next five years to enhance our digital capabilities and drive productivity improvements, including replacing our ERP.
This will enhance our supply chain to better position Clorox to meet customer needs, yield efficiencies and support our digital commerce, innovation and brand-building efforts.
Prior to the pandemic, we were already adapting our business to differentiate Clorox from a digital perspective.
We'll continue to invest in e-commerce and digital marketing across our portfolio, leveraging data-driven insights to engage with consumers in more relevant ways.
Innovation continues to be a key focus area for me and our new Chief Growth Officer, Tony Matta, who joined last October.
Tony has more than 20 years of brand-building experience with leading consumer companies.
Ensuring we have stickier innovation delivering multiyear value, we're driving lasting new product platforms, such as Fresh Step Clean Paws and Scentiva, which continue to grow.
In addition, we're extending innovation by leveraging external partners to create new revenue streams.
We're continuing to support our brands, especially margin-accretive innovation, with disciplined high-ROI advertising and sales promotion investments to build and strengthen consumer loyalty.
We also remain very focused on driving our growth runways to build Clorox into a global cleaning and disinfecting brand.
We are still in the early stages of a multiyear journey, but continue to believe they can become a meaningful contributor to growth longer-term.
And as we execute on all these initiatives, we will continue to drive the strategic link between our societal impacts and long-term value creation as we live our purpose and keep our ESG commitments front and center in our decision-making every day.
Now turning to our segment results.
In Health and Wellness, Q4 sales decreased 17% for the quarter, while full year sales were up 8%, with growth across all businesses.
On a two-year stack basis, Q4 sales grew 16% and full year sales grew 22%.
In Cleaning, sales were down by double digits compared to double-digit growth in the year ago quarter, primarily due to the deceleration of demand across various cleaning and disinfecting products.
On a full year basis, Cleaning sales grew behind a strong front half performance.
While demand fell faster than anticipated, it remains higher than it was pre-pandemic, with strong repeat rates among new buyers.
Importantly, our supply and product assortment are almost fully restored, which is reflected in our market share improvement, especially in wipes and sprays.
As consumer demand migrated to more preferred forms and value packs, we also saw a negative impact to price mix, which we expect to continue over the next few quarters.
Going forward, we'll be focused on strengthening our merchandising activities, especially for the back-to-school period.
Sales in Professional Products were down by double digits versus year ago period, when we experienced double-digit growth.
For the full year, Professional Products sales were up by double digits, fueled by an exceptional front half performance.
Demand started moderating in Q3 and continued into Q4 as customers worked through high inventory levels, especially of Clorox T 360 electrostatic sprayers.
In the short term, we expect results will continue to be volatile as we lap periods with unprecedented demand.
Longer-term, this business continues to be a strategic growth area for the company.
As part of our initiative to expand into new channels, we continue to add to our roster of out-of-home partnerships, including Live Nation, the world's leading live events company.
Lastly, within the Health and Wellness segment, our Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements business increased by double digits this quarter after lapping a double-digit decrease caused by a supply disruption related to COVID-19.
For the full year, sales were up as well.
Sales growth for the quarter was driven by a strong performance in the food, drug and mass channel and e-commerce.
Turning to the Household segment.
Q4 sales were down 8%.
Full year sales grew 10%, with growth across all three businesses.
On a two-year stack basis, Q4 sales grew 8% and full year sales grew 12%.
Glad sales decreased by double digits in Q4, lapping strong double-digit growth in the year ago quarter, which was impacted by initial stockpiling.
For the full year, sales were up.
Our efforts going forward are focused on managing base with the strong inflationary headwinds we're facing.
And as Linda mentioned, we still have more work to do in this business to restore market share.
Grilling sales decreased by double digits in Q4 as demand started moderating after four consecutive quarters of strong double-digit growth.
For the full year, sales grew by double digits, fueled by very strong consumption overall.
Our focus on expanding distribution of our latest innovation, Kingsford Pellets, continued with a nationwide launch, building on the product's initial success, while we're also introducing signature flavors made with 100% real spices that will be available in select retailers before Labor Day as we gear up for the 2022 grilling season.
This innovation is intended to help our business continue building consumption among multicultural millennials and other heavy grillers.
Cat Litter sales grew by double digits in Q4 driven by continued strong consumption.
For the full year, Litter sales also grew.
The result reflected strength in e-commerce, with Fresh Step becoming the number one brand online for the first time and positive overall category trends, boosted by record pet adoptions during the pandemic.
In our Lifestyle segment, sales were down 3% and full year sales grew 6%.
On a two-year stack basis, Q4 sales grew 13% and full year sales grew 16%.
Brita sales were down as demand continued to moderate from an extended period of elevated consumption.
Full year sales grew on top of double-digit growth in the prior year.
Despite the deceleration in Q4, business fundamentals are strong, especially now that our supply is mostly restored.
We're excited about the strong merchandising program we've put in place this year, including the largest back-to-college event ever for the brand.
The Food business was down, primarily due to lower shipments of Hidden Valley Ranch bottle dressings, with consumption moderating as consumer mobility improved.
Full year sales were up by double digits, on top of double-digit growth in the prior year.
The consumer fundamentals for this business are strong, with the brand growing market share and household penetration.
Burt's Bees sales increased by double digits this quarter as overall category consumption begin to recover.
Full year sales were down as category consumption was negatively impacted by store closures, mask mandates and stay-at-home measures.
We expect this business to continue to recover as people begin returning to their pre-pandemic shopping patterns and consumer mobility keeps improving.
We'll build on that momentum with our new "Lips To Love" campaign, supported by a strong innovation pipeline.
Lastly, turning to International.
Q4 sales grew 5%, reflecting the combined impact of the Saudi JV acquisition and benefit of price increases, partially offset by lower shipments due to the moderating demand after a period of elevated consumption.
Extended lockdowns in Canada also contributed to the decrease in shipments.
The results are on top of 12% growth in the year ago period, when we saw elevated consumption across our portfolio during the early stages of the pandemic.
Importantly, we continue to expand our global Disinfecting Wipes business, building on the dedicated international supply chain that was developed in five months and are making progress launching our Clorox Expert Disinfecting Wipes in existing countries as well as new markets.
For the full year, sales increased 14%, reflecting very strong growth for the majority of the year before moderating in Q4.
On a two-year stack basis, Q4 sales grew 17% and full year sales grew 19%.
As Linda mentioned, for fiscal year '21, we delivered 9% sales growth on top of 8% sales growth in fiscal year '20.
While this is lower than we anticipated in our outlook, we feel good about delivering another strong sales year.
Of course, we continue to manage through an extremely challenging cost environment, which impacted our fiscal year margins and earnings.
Importantly, we delivered another year of strong cash flow, which came in at $1.3 billion compared to a record $1.5 billion for fiscal year '20.
I'm pleased our strong cash flow allowed us to return almost $1.5 billion to our shareholders through our dividend and share repurchase program, representing an increase of about 90% in cash returned to shareholders versus fiscal year '20.
Before I review our Q4 results, I wanted to highlight a $28 million noncash charge we booked in Q4 related to a third-party supplier for our Professional Products business.
As we have shared previously, during the height of the pandemic, we worked with a number of third-party suppliers to support us in addressing unprecedented demand in the consumer and professional spaces.
We are reducing our reliance on one of these suppliers, and as a result, we took a charge in the fourth quarter.
Important to note, this noncash charge is included in our reported earnings per share and excluded from our Q4 adjusted earnings per share as it represents a nonrecurring item.
Turning to our fourth quarter results.
Fourth quarter sales decreased 9% in comparison to a 22% increase in the year ago quarter, delivering a two-year stack of 13% sales growth.
Our sales results reflect an 8% decline in organic volume and two points of unfavorable price mix, primarily in our Health and Wellness segment, as supply improvements resulted in a broader product assortment, including the reintroduction of value packs.
On an organic basis, fourth quarter sales declined 10%.
Fourth quarter sales were lower than expected, primarily in our Health and Wellness segment, as demand for cleaning and disinfecting products moderated more rapidly than we had previously anticipated.
While the cleaning and disinfecting category continues to moderate, we're pleased to see improving share as we've increased our ability to supply.
Gross margin for the quarter decreased 970 basis points to 37.1% compared to 46.8% in the year ago quarter.
Gross margin results were lower than anticipated, largely driven by higher input costs and lower sales.
The year-over-year change in Q4 gross margin was primarily driven by lower sales, resulting in lower manufacturing fixed cost absorption as well as significant cost headwinds, driving about 290 basis points of higher commodity costs, 180 basis points of increased transportation costs as well as 130 basis points of unfavorable mix.
Our fourth quarter gross margin also includes about 70 basis points of negative impact from the noncash charge I just mentioned.
These margin headwinds were partially offset by about 90 basis points of cost savings and 50 basis points of benefit from our pricing actions in our International division.
Selling and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales came in at 14.4% compared to 14.1% in the year ago quarter.
Advertising and sales promotion investment levels as a percentage of sales came in at about 12%, with U.S. spending at about 14% of sales.
Strong investments in Q4 supported our back half innovation program and reflected our continued focus on building loyalty among new consumers.
Our fourth quarter effective tax rate was 0%, primarily driven by a tax benefit from the exiting of a small foreign subsidiary, which was mostly offset by the charge we took to pre-tax book income associated with this decision as well as favorable return to provision adjustments.
On a full year basis, our effective tax rate was 20%.
Net of all these factors, adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter came in at $0.95 versus $2.41 in the year ago quarter, a decline of 61%.
Before I review the details of our outlook, let me provide perspective on the strategic investment Linda discussed.
We are planning to invest about $500 million over the next five years to enhance our digital capabilities and drive productivity improvements, including the replacement of our ERP.
In fiscal year '22, we plan to invest about $90 million in operating and capital expenditures, with about $55 million impacting our P&L and the remainder reflected in our balance sheet.
Beginning in Q1 and going forward, our adjusted earnings per share will exclude the portion of the $500 million investment that flows through our P&L to provide better insights into our underlying operating performance of our business.
Now turning to our fiscal year '22 outlook.
We anticipate fiscal year sales to be down 2% to 6%, reflecting ongoing demand moderation, primarily in our cleaning and disinfecting products in the front half of the fiscal year, in addition to the unfavorable mix and higher trade spending as we move to a more normalized supply and promotional environment.
We assume these factors will be partially offset by the pricing actions we're taking broadly across our portfolio.
Organic sales are expected to be down 2% to 6% as well.
We expect front half sales to decline high single to low double digits as we lap 27% growth in the front half of fiscal year '21, during the height of the pandemic.
Additionally, we expect Q1 sales to decline low double digits.
As we move to the back half of the year, we expect to return to the lower end of our long-term sales growth target.
Of course, we continue to operate in a dynamic and uncertain environment, which could impact our outlook.
We anticipate fiscal year gross margin to be down 300 to 400 basis points due to our assumption for significant ongoing headwinds from elevated commodity and transportation costs, which represent nearly $300 million in year-over-year cost increases.
We expect these headwinds to be more pronounced in the front half of the year, particularly in Q1, as we expect key commodity cost increases to reduce gross margin by about 500 basis points, driving our assumption for Q1 gross margin to decline 1,100 to 1,300 basis points.
For perspective, in Q1, we are lapping a modern gross margin record of 48%, reflecting over 400 basis points of favorable operating leverage on 27% sales growth in the year ago quarter.
This is based on our assumption that cost inflation will begin to moderate, and it will see the benefits from mitigating actions flow more fully through our P&L.
We expect fiscal year selling and administrative expenses to be about 15% of sales, which includes about one point of impact related to our investment to enhance our digital capabilities.
Additionally, we anticipate fiscal year advertising spending to be about 10% of sales, reflecting our ongoing commitment to invest behind our brands and build market share.
We expect our fiscal year tax rate to be about 22% to 23%.
The year-over-year increase primarily reflects lapping several onetime benefits in the prior fiscal year.
Net of these factors, we anticipate fiscal year adjusted earnings per share to be between $5.40 to $5.70.
As we start fiscal year '22, I would like to emphasize our priority to address elevated cost pressures from both commodities and transportation throughout the fiscal year.
We are focused on executing the pricing actions we discussed today.
We have implemented our announced price increase on our Bags and Wraps and are taking pricing on our Food, Cleaning and International businesses.
This represents about 50% of our portfolio.
We are also pursuing pricing in additional parts of our portfolio, which we'll announce at a later date.
While it's still early, we are confident in our ability to price given the strength of our brand and the constructive conversations we're having with retailers.
Consistent with our IGNITE Strategy, we're addressing short-term headwinds head-on, with an eye on the long-term health of our business.
We will continue to invest in our brands, including meaningful innovation to drive differentiation, which will help us continue to drive superior consumer value.
We are leaning into our cost savings program and productivity initiatives to help address ongoing cost pressures.
And we're accelerating investments in our digital transformation to drive increased capabilities, lower costs across our supply chain and improve innovation efforts and our brand engagement activities.
And finally, as Linda mentioned, our business is significantly larger than before the pandemic, and we're well positioned for the future.
Our global portfolio of trusted brands is more relevant than ever, and we're positioning ourselves to make the most of the changing consumer trends we see.
We have confidence in our strategic plans and our ability to execute to enable us to continue to create long-term value for our shareholders.
We're focused on strong execution in the face of dynamic conditions, including addressing significant cost headwinds and improving market share.
In addition, we have clarity on the strategic imperatives and executional mandate to differentiate Clorox and build a stronger, more resilient and more profitable company.
And as we accelerate and execute our IGNITE Strategy, we're confident that it will drive improved performance.

user
sees fy adjusted earnings per share $5.40 to $5.70.
starting in fy 2022, expects to invest about $500 million over next five years in its digital capabilities, productivity enhancements.
2022 fiscal year sales are projected to be down 2% to 6%.
in second half of fy 2022, sales are expected to normalize toward lower end of co's long-term sales growth target of 3% to 5%.
expects largest factor impacting its sales performance in fiscal year 2022 to be consumer demand, which remains uncertain.
fiscal year 2022 organic sales are projected to be down 2% to 6%.

assistant