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: Our actual results could differ materially from these statements due to many factors discussed in our latest 10-K and other periodic reports.
We believe these measures are important indicators of our operations as they exclude items that may not be indicative of results from our ongoing business operations.
We also think the adjusted measures will provide you a better baseline for analyzing trends in our ongoing business operations.
In difficult times like the ones we're living through today, it is important that we remain true to our guiding principles.
Whirlpool's 110 year history is rooted in our value-driven commitment to our shareholders, employees, consumers and communities in which we operate.
In 2020, we faced unprecedented challenges due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Yes, we remained firm in our commitment to all of our stakeholders.
The health and well-being of our employees was and it remains our top priority.
We increased safety measures at all manufacturing plants and provided additional resources to care for families and those who fell ill.
We established business continuity plan to ensure our consumers received our products to improve life at home with their families.
And we continue to support our global communities by procuring medical supplies, making donations and engineering critical equipment for front-line workers.
In parallel, we made significant advancement toward our sustainability target, resulting in ratings improvements and external recognition.
Most notably, we received a low-risk rating from Sustainalytics, a year-over-year improvement driven by our outstanding energy and water efficiency programs and our strong global product safety systems.
And we were named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index in recognition of our long-standing sustainable business practices.
2020 marked our 14th time on the list in the last 15 years.
I'm very proud of the way our employees have managed through this pandemic.
It is ultimately the agility of our organization and the resilience of our employees that allowed us to deliver record results in 2020.
Now turning to our fourth quarter 2020 highlights on Slide 4.
We delivered strong organic net sales growth of over 10% driven by solid industry demand across the globe.
Additionally, we delivered ongoing EBIT margin of over 11%, a second consecutive quarter of double-digit margins and a year-over-year expansion of 410 basis points.
Lastly, we successfully executed our go-to-market initiatives and drove strong cost takeout across the globe, leading to positive EBIT and EBIT margin expansion in all regions.
Now turning to Slide 5.
We will discuss our full-year highlights.
We took immediate and decisive action as we announced and executed our $500 million plus cost takeout program.
Further, we realigned our go-to-market strategy to effectively operate within a supply constrained environment.
And structural and sustained positive demand trends and the exceptional execution of our COVID-19 response strategy resulted in record ongoing earnings per share of $18.55, a 16% improvement compared to the prior year, above our previous guidance.
Record ongoing EBIT margin of 9.1%, a 220 basis point improvement and a 25% increase in total EBIT compared to the prior year.
And record free cash flow of approximately $1.25 billion with positive free cash flow in North America, Latin America and Europe.
Despite significant macroeconomic uncertainty, we strengthened our balance sheet and drove significant shareholder value.
We reduced our gross debt leverage to 2.3 times making progress toward our long-term target of 2 times.
We delivered a return on invested capital of approximately 11%, representing the fourth consecutive year of improvement as we realize the benefit of continued EBIT margin expansion at an optimized asset base in our Europe region.
Lastly, we returned strong levels of cash to shareholders through share repurchases and increased our dividends for eighth consecutive year.
Overall, results we delivered in 2020 reflect the structural improvements we have made, not just in 2020, but also those made during the years before.
We are a fundamentally different company with an improved margin and cash flow profile.
2020 could have been a setback for us.
Instead, we were able to significantly accelerate our progress toward our long-term financial goals.
Turning to Slide 6.
We show the drivers of our fourth quarter and full year EBIT margin.
In the fourth quarter price-mix delivered 375 basis points of margin expansion, driven by reduced promotional investment and mix benefit as consumers invest in their homes.
Additionally, we delivered on our cost takeout program positively impacting margin by 125 basis points.
Further, reduced steel and resin cost resulted in a favorable impact of 125 basis points.
These margin benefits were partially offset by continued marketing and technology investments and the unfavorable impact of currency.
For full year, very strong margin expansion from price mix and our cost takeout program were partially offset by increased brand investments and currency.
Overall, we're very pleased to be delivering on our long-term EBIT margin commitment and are confident this positive momentum will continue to drive very strong results in '21.
Turning to Slide 8, I will review our fourth quarter regional results.
In North America, we delivered 4% revenue growth driven by continued strong demand in the region.
Additionally, we delivered record EBIT driven by the flawless execution of our cost takeout and go-to-market actions.
Lastly, we continue to optimize our supply chain operations, driving weekly improvements in our production yield.
Delivering top line growth and a record EBIT performance, the region's outstanding results again demonstrate the fundamental strength of our business model.
Turning to Slide 9, I'll review our fourth quarter results for our Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
Share growth in Italy and the U.K. along with strong demand in the region drove another quarter of double-digit revenue growth.
Additionally, the region delivered year-over-year EBIT improvement of $29 million led by increased demand and strong cost takeout.
We overcame the challenges presented by COVID-19 and restored profitability to the region in line with our commitment at the start of the year.
Our 2020 results demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategic actions and the progress we have made to-date.
Turning to Slide 10, I'll review our fourth quarter results for our Latin America region.
Net sales increased 5% with organic net sales growth of 28% led by strong demand in Brazil.
The region delivered very strong EBIT margins of 12% with continued strong demand and disciplined execution of go-to-market actions, offsetting significant currency devaluation.
Overall, the region's 2020 performance serves as a proof point of the viability of our long-term financial goals highlighting our ability to deliver double-digit margins in a strong demand environment.
Turning to Slide 11, I'll review our fourth quarter results for our Asia region.
In India, we delivered strong year-over-year net sales growth, driven by demand recovery.
In China, we delivered Whirlpool branded share growth in addition to EBIT improvement led by cost productivity actions.
Overall, we are pleased to see a rebound in Asia and look forward to building on this momentum in 2021.
Turning to Slide 13, Marc and I will discuss our full-year 2021 guidance.
Needless to say some uncertainty remains as we continue to operate in a COVID environment.
However, we do believe increased disposable income, investments in the home and a favorable housing shift are here to stay and will drive strong demand.
Based on our internal model for industry and broad economy we expect global industry growth of 4%.
As we have demonstrated in 2020, we are uniquely positioned to capture the structural shift and further advance our strategic priorities.
It is with confidence that we provide our '21 guidance, which reflects our fourth consecutive year of record earnings per share and significant top line growth.
We expect to drive net sales growth of approximately 6% as we capitalize on strong demand and share gains in all regions.
Additionally, we expect to deliver above 9% ongoing EBIT margin and deliver free cash flow of $1 billion or more.
Turning to Slide 14, we show the drivers of our 9% plus ongoing EBIT margin guidance.
We expect price mix to deliver approximately 100 basis points of margin expansion through three key initiatives, one, disciplined execution of our go-to-market actions, two, recently announced cost-base price increase in Brazil, Russia, and India and, three, new product launches.
Just to give you a few examples of our legacy for innovation, in 2020, we rolled out our new global dishwasher architecture featuring the largest capacity third rack dishwasher.
In Europe, we launched a Red Dot award-winning built-in induction cooktop.
In the United States, we entered the consumables detergent business with the launch our ultra concentrated Swash detergent.
Next, we expect net cost to positively impact margin by 150 basis points.
As ongoing cost productivity efforts coupled with the carryover benefit from our 2020 cost takeout program more than offset elevated freight and labor cost.
We expect raw material inflation to negatively impact margin by 150 basis points, led by higher steel and resin cost.
Further, as we continue to invest in the future, we expect increased marketing and technology investments to drive a negative margin impact of 50 basis points, while unfavorable currency, primarily Latin America, expected to impact margin by approximately 50 basis points.
In total, we expect these actions to deliver 9% plus ongoing EBIT margin, an EBIT improvement of over $100 million compared to the prior year.
Turning to Slide 15, we show our regional guidance for the year.
Starting with industry demand, we expect a robust demand environment for North America, supported by continued strength from consumer nesting trends and increased discretionary spending.
Additionally, the impact from positive U.S. housing starts, which began to strengthen in late 2019 and strong existing home sales will translate to higher appliance demand.
In EMEA, we expect a continued recovery in the first half of the year to support strong growth, while in Latin America, we expect modest growth of 2% to 4% as the benefits from government stimulus in Brazil are lessened.
Asia industry is expected to accelerate by 6% to 8% as the region rebounds from prolonged shutdowns in 2020.
Regarding our EBIT guidance, we expect very strong margins of 15% or more in North America.
We expect the impact of favorable go-to-market initiatives and disciplined cost actions to offset cost inflation.
In EMEA, we expect the strategic actions laid out during our 2019 Investor Day to drive EBIT margin expansion of over 250 basis points and a full-year EBIT margin of over 2.5%.
In Latin America, we expect to deliver EBIT margins of 7% or higher.
A steady demand improvements and positive price mix are offset by continued currency devaluation in Argentina and Brazil.
Lastly, we expect to achieve EBIT margins of 2% or higher in Asia, driven by demand recovery.
Turning to slide 16, we will discuss the drivers of our 2021 free cash flow.
We expect another year of very strong cash earnings of approximately $2 billion, driven by sustained EBIT margins.
We plan to increase capital investments to historical levels to support the launch of innovative products around the globe.
Additionally, we will continue to invest in world-class manufacturing and our digital transformation journey.
Further, as we ended 2020 with record low inventory levels, we are planning for a moderate inventory built.
We anticipate restructuring cash outlays of approximately $225 million primarily due to the impact of COVID-19-related restructuring actions executed in 2020 and the exit of our Naples, Italy operations.
Overall, we expect to drive free cash flow of $1 billion or more as we focus on continuing to deliver record EBIT margin levels and prioritizing our capital investments.
Turning to slide 17, we provide an update on our capital allocation priorities for 2021.
We remain fully committed to funding the business driving innovation and growth, while continuing to strengthen our balance sheet and return cash to shareholders.
We expect to invest over $1 billion in capital expenditures and research and development, highlighting our commitment to driving innovation and growth in the future.
We have reinstated our share repurchase program that had been temporarily suspended during the height of the pandemic.
With a clear focus on returning increased levels of cash to shareholders, we expect to repurchase shares at moderate levels.
Lastly, we have a clear line of sight to delivering on our long-term goal of gross debt to EBITDA up 2 times.
We are extremely pleased to see that despite the enormous challenges of operating in a global pandemic, our teams were able to deliver on our long term value creation targets.
In North America, we delivered nearly 16% EBIT margins for the full year, significantly above our long-term margin goal for the region of 13% plus.
We restored the European region to profitability.
In Latin America, we capitalize on strong industry demand, demonstrating the long-term margin potential in the region.
And finally, we delivered record free cash flow of $1.25 billion or 6.4% of sales, above our long-term goal of 6% of sales.
Further, we demonstrated an unwavering commitment to our environmental, social and governance priorities, resulting in significant advancements to our targets.
Building on the momentum of our 2020 performance and the operational excellence of our global team, we are confident that we are well-positioned to deliver another record year in '21.

user
oration delivering on long-term value creation targets with very strong fourth-quarter and full-year results.
sees full-year 2021 net sales increase of about 6 percent.
sees 2021 free cash flow of $1 billion or more.

assistant