Adjusted earnings were $0.87 per share from $0.49 per share last year.
Consolidated sales increased 41% to $519.5 million from $367.3 million last year.
Written same-store sales for the entire La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries network doubled, increasing 100%.
Consolidated sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 increased 41.4% to $519.5 million versus the fiscal 2020 fourth quarter, which was impacted by COVID-19-related plant and retail closures. Consolidated GAAP operating margin increased to 9.6% versus 3.7% in the prior-year fourth quarter. Consolidated non-GAAP(1) operating margin improved to 10.0% versus 9.3% in last year’s fourth quarter, reflecting strong performance across all business units.
For the entire La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries® network, written same-store sales doubled, increasing 100%, for the fiscal 2021 fourth quarter compared with the fiscal 2020 fourth quarter. Compared with the pre-pandemic fiscal 2019 fourth quarter, written same-store sales for the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries® network increased 29%.
For the fiscal 2021 fourth quarter, delivered sales in the company’s Wholesale(2) segment increased 40% to $384.0 million compared with the prior-year fourth quarter, which was impacted by COVID-19.
Non-GAAP operating margin for the Wholesale segment was a healthy 10.2% versus 11.1% for the prior-year period, reflecting disciplined cost management on advertising which helped offset higher raw material and freight costs and expenses to expand production capacity to service record backlog. Last year's fourth quarter benefited from a one-time rebate of previously paid tariffs partially offset by higher bad debt expense.
Retail segment delivered sales increased 39% to $193.5 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 compared with the prior-year fourth quarter.
Written same-store sales for the company-owned La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries® stores more than doubled, increasing 114% in the quarter, reflecting positive trends across all sales metrics, including traffic, conversion and average ticket, versus last year's fourth quarter which included store closures during the last four weeks of the period. Non-GAAP(1) operating margin for the Retail segment was 12.2% in the fiscal 2021 fourth quarter versus 10.8% in last year’s fourth quarter, primarily driven by fixed-cost leverage on higher delivered sales volume.
Within Corporate & Other, Joybird sales more than doubled compared with the prior-year quarter, increasing 144% to $37.7 million.
Written sales increased 125% compared with the prior-year quarter, reflecting ongoing strong order trends and the strength of the brand in the online marketplace. For the third consecutive quarter, Joybird posted strong gross margins, delivered profitable growth and increased conversion rates while increasing its marketing spend to drive customer acquisition.
GAAP diluted EPS was $0.81 for the fiscal 2021 fourth quarter versus $0.05 in the prior-year quarter. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.87 versus $0.49 in last year’s fourth quarter.
For fiscal 2021, the company generated $310 million in cash from operating activities, reflecting strong profit performance and a $140 million increase in customer deposits from written orders for the company's Retail segment and Joybird.
La-Z-Boy ended the period with $395 million in cash and no debt, compared with $264 million in cash and $75 million in short-term borrowings at the end of fiscal 2020.
The company holds $32 million in investments to enhance returns on cash versus $29 million at the end of fiscal 2020. In fiscal 2021 the company spent $8 million related to acquisitions, invested $38 million in the business through capital expenditures, paid $17 million in dividends and spent $44 million repurchasing approximately 1.1 million shares of stock in the open market under its existing authorized share repurchase program, leaving 3.4 million shares available for repurchase under the program as of April 24, 2021.
Demand trends remain strong across the business with backlog at record levels. The company anticipates ongoing incremental increases in manufacturing capacity throughout fiscal 2022 that will enable higher delivered sales, but expects ongoing global supply chain disruptions and headwinds related to raw materials and freight costs will cause some volatility in results.
In the short term, the company expects a temporary negative impact to profit margins versus very strong fourth-quarter results due to dramatic raw material price increases which will only be offset by previously announced pricing actions as the company works through its backlog in the back half of the year.
Incoming order rates and backlog will mitigate the usual seasonal slowdown associated with the first quarter. However, as usual, capacity in the first quarter is limited to 12 weeks of production/shipments to enable a shutdown week in July for maintenance for most of the company’s plants, compared with 13 weeks in the second and fourth quarters. ■