Don Allan
President and CFO at Stanley Black & Decker
Thank you, Jim, and good morning everyone. As Jim mentioned, we are focused on serving robust demand and investing in our supply chain to position us for sustained growth. We took multiple actions in 2021 to navigate the global supply chain and position the business to have the capacity, sourcing, operational efficiency, and resilience to serve our customers and deliver significant growth in revenue and cash flow in 2022 and beyond.
These key investments include adding capacity consistent with our Make Where We Sell strategy, co-investing with strategic sourcing partners with a focus on batteries and semiconductors, and investing in automation solutions to support productivity, labor efficiency, and competitive cost. Our capacity additions are on track and we have opened two new power tool plants and one new hand tool facility in North America, which are now ramping up.
These new manufacturing plants will enable shorter lead times and be accompanied by parallel regional development of our supply chain base over time, enhancing local sourcing, and speed to market. As it relates to strategic sourcing, we have added new battery suppliers and made co-investments with key partners that have put us in a great position as we enter 2022. We have the necessary battery supply and capacity to support significant growth in Tools and to fuel our electrification strategy and outdoor.
The supply environment remains tight for semiconductors and electronic components. This plus the elongated global supply chain, which significantly increased inventory in transit impacted our ability to generate more volume in the fourth quarter. Semiconductor shortages have been a pain point for many Global Industrials and we have been investing to improve supply to enable significant Tools growth. For example, adding new Tier 2 and 3 suppliers for chips, co-investing with Tier 1 suppliers to improve their capacity, and taking actions to lower lead times across our supply base.
As mentioned in October, we expect semiconductor supply to improve in Q2 versus current levels. Based on current commitments from our semiconductor suppliers, we expect a 20% to 30% increase in shifts in Q2 versus the current run rate. In summary, we have been working to alleviate constraints and many key components and are now down to the last critical few which will unlock more supply as we move into the second quarter. We are also advancing our Industry 4.0 capabilities driving automation throughout our manufacturing environment.
This will make our US manufacturing plants more competitive as well as improved productivity and factories across the globe. We just completed a significant flexible automation assembly line in our major US power tool plant. It is up and running. Last year, we also made significant investments in inventory to help meet the outsized demand in the Tools business, excluding the consolidation impact from acquisitions we increased our core inventory position by $1.8 billion as compared to year-end 2020. Two-thirds of this increase is composed of inputs, work in progress, or goods in transit that will work their way through our supply chain to support growth and improve fill rates with our customers.
As a result, fourth quarter free cash flow was $175 million, which brings our year-to-date results to $144 million significantly below our prior expectation for 2021. The main driver of the deviation was related to the congestion of the global supply chain on working capital. Let me impact this to provide some additional color. First, we ended up building more inventory in Tools versus our expectation. This was primarily related to a combination of goods in transit, expanding in the quarter as we experienced port and other logistical delays.
The increased Tools inventory is needed to serve existing and projected demand and therefore, we believe we will sell through this incremental inventory during 2022. Secondly, we are holding on to inventory longer than we have historically due to longer shipping and lead times which has changed the relationship between inventory, and payables. This dynamic also led to a deviation versus our October expectations.
Finally, the MTD and Excel inventory build ahead of the outdoor season was not in our forecast, back in October due to the unknown timing of each of those[Phonetic]. The global supply chain is dynamic as we all know and requires a new intensity focus and agility to react to the changes as well as to be able to predict these interdependencies that may be -- may not be consistent with past experiences. We have a long history of using the SBD Operating Model to drive high asset efficiency, strong cash flow, and superior cash flow return on investment.
These processes and tools with some new enhancements will ensure we mitigate the temporary portion of the inventory increase and the correlated impact to accounts payables. We will do this while holding the appropriate levels of inventory and making capex investments to support the strategic growth initiatives you've heard about earlier. We expect to drive working capital efficiency in three primary areas which will increase supply chain predictability, optimize inventory location, and improve inventory turns from acquired businesses.
One, opportunities will definitely arise as the semiconductor pressure alleviates in Q2 and the electronic component supply improves. Two, we've built a dedicated team focused on lowering in-transit inventory. This team will also focus on product SKU optimization of our days of stock ensuring we have the right inventory when it's needed, higher customers. And three, we are also deploying the SBD Operating Model across our recent acquisitions to drive efficiency in all aspects of working capital.
MTD and Excel, enter the portfolio around three turns and we have line of sight to improving that metric across a multi-year period. This management team has dealt with headwinds and temporary shifts in business conditions for two decades plus and therefore we are confident that we will improve our turns and believe the cash flow, working capital benefit is at least a $500 million opportunity which is incorporated into our $2 billion cash flow commitment for 2022.
In summary, our portfolio and supply chain actions from 2021, that put us in great shape for 2022 and beyond. I will now take a deeper dive into our business segment results for the fourth quarter. Tools and Storage delivered 3% revenue growth, as the acquisitions of MTD and Excel contributed 7% and price delivered five points. These factors were partially offset by a decline of 8% in volume and 1% from currency. Regional organic growth was 7% in the emerging markets with weaker performances in North America and Europe due to one, a tough comparable related to the prior year holiday shipping timing; two, the current year volume constraints caused by supply chain logistical challenge I previously mentioned; and three, the anticipated Q4 semiconductor shortage shortages we discussed in October.
Pricing actions delivered strong mid single-digit growth in response to commodity inflation and higher cost to serve aligned with expectations. This was the most significant -- significant quarterly price benefit the tools and storage business has seen in modern history. The operating margin rate for the segment was 11.4% down versus last year as pricing benefits were more than offset by inflation, higher supply chain costs, growth investments in volume.
As a reminder, the fourth quarter of 2021 as well as the first quarter of 2022 is currently expected to be the peak of the inflation and supply chain cost headwinds and then these headwinds will begin to recede versus the prior year. This expected trend in headwinds, combined with the pricing actions we completed in 2021. The additional price actions to be be completed and implemented in 2022 that I will touch on a little bit later in the call and the cost controls that we recently put in place will result in profitability rates trending back to normalized levels as we move through 2022 for Tools and Storage.
End user demand strength remains persistent across all markets as the consumer reconnection with the home and garden, innovation, and e-commerce continue to drive growth. Our e-commerce platforms grew over 30% in 2021. The innovation pipeline continues to be impressive with new product launches across the portfolio in addition to an exciting line of new product introductions in 2022 within the DEWALT, FLEXVOLT, Atomic, and Extreme Power Tool platform and also across the construction, automotive, and industrial end markets.
Point of sale demand in US retail grew high single digits and channel inventory ended below historical levels. We saw strong professional driven demand in the commercial and industrial channels, which grew in the fourth quarter and achieved 28% organic growth in the year. Now turning to the tools and storage SBUs. Power Tools delivered 20% organic growth in 2021 which was supported by the new and innovative product launches across CRAFTSMAN, DEWALT, and Stanley FatMax inclusive of DEWALT power stack, which is off to a fantastic start.
Hand tools, accessories, and storage achieved full-year organic growth of 17%, inclusive of 26% international organic growth fueled by robust market demand and new product highlights including the CRAFTSMAN trade stack and DEWALT tough[Phonetic] system portable storage solutions as well as new additions to the DEWALT elite series circular saw blades. Moving to outdoor products this business grew 3% organically in the quarter while the addition of MTD and Excel added over $200 million of revenue.
The outdoor team had a great 2021 achieving 40% organic growth, inclusive of the share gain, led by electrification. This came from new listings and innovations under the Black & Decker, CRAFTSMAN, and DEWALT brands. Our acquisitions also has strong innovation led organic growth for 2021 with new launches such as the Redesign Hustler FasTrak zero-turn mower line for commercial use and the first semi-autonomous zero turn mower with Cub Cadet SurePath. We are beginning the journey, integrate our acquisitions into a new 4 billion revenue strategic business unit and are making great strides towards becoming one team focused on innovation, growth and capturing the cost and revenue synergies from these transactions.
The collective efforts of our Tools and outdoor teams across the globe were unrelenting as they continue to navigate this dynamic operating environment. I want to acknowledge and thank the entire team for your perseverance and dedication.
Now shifting to industrial. Quarterly segment revenue declined 7% versus last year as the three points of price realization were more than offset by 9% volume and 1% currency. Operating margin was 9.3% down versus last year as the benefits from price and productivity were more than offset by commodity inflation and market-driven volume declines in the higher margin automotive and aerospace fastener businesses due to our -- due to our customers primarily in those markets, lowering their production.
Looking further within the segment engineered fastening organic revenues were down 9% as strong general industrial growth of 12% was more than offset by aerospace market pressure and lower automotive OEM production, which obviously resulted from the global semiconductor shortage. Our auto fastener business navigated customer production fluctuations in a dynamic market as they move through the year. Despite these external challenges auto fasteners demonstrated nine points of outperformance versus light vehicle production and the business successfully doubled its revenue tied to electric vehicle production.
The business is exceptionally well positioned for the cyclical rebound in production and for the secular trend of electrification. Our industrial fastener business realized 12% organic growth in the quarter and exits the year with a healthy backlog, which is up nearly 50% versus 2020. It was satisfying to see the business achieve organic growth over 18% in 2021, two times the global industrial production index. While aerospace continued to decline significantly versus prior year we have started to see green shoots[Phonetic] with revenues sequentially improving for two quarters in a row.
This business is focused on capturing the coming rebound in production that will begin in 2022 and continue beyond that. Infrastructure organic revenues were up 3% as 18% growth in Attachment Tools was largely offset by lower pipeline project activity in oil and gas. Momentum continues to build in the attachment tools market with strong demand from our OEM and independent dealer customers generating orders that were up 59% versus the prior year and a backlog that is nearly five times year ending 2020 levels.
To summarize our thoughts on industrial, we saw some pockets of strong growth combined with early stages of stabilization and the challenge markets I mentioned as we close 2021 and we are looking forward to leveraging the cyclical recovery and to capitalizing on the auto electrification trend over the next two to three years. Turning to the operating environment, we are actively engaged on multiple fronts to support margin recovery and believe headwinds have now stabilized.
The 2022 carryover impact inclusive of currency is sized[Phonetic] at nearly $800 million from an input cost and transport rate perspective. We have assumed that the levels seen in the fourth quarter continue for all of 2022. This could be a second half opportunity if recent trends in commodity pricing hold. However with the continuing dynamic environment we are not counting on that and we remain diligent on executing several actions to support margin recovery.
We are taking more price actions in the first quarter to offset these headwinds. We are notifying our North American Tools and outdoor customers this week about new price increases of 5% to 10% or more depending on the category. These actions are in addition to the five points of price already delivered which underscores that the price environment today is very different from history. Our expectation is 100% coverage of inflation during this cycle.
Our 2022 plan now calls for 6% to 7% price, which will be exceeding the carryover cost impact. These actions in aggregate will support sequential margin improvement in the coming quarters and year-over-year margin improvement in the back half of the year. In terms of when price costs turns positive we still expect that to occur in the middle of the year as close to 90% of the $800 million of headwinds are estimated to occur in the front half of 2022.
Finally, as always we continue to advance our margin resiliency initiatives and see a pathway to generate $100 million to $150 million of 2022 opportunity. Now before diving into guidance there is one point that I would like to mention. As a reminder, from our release this guidance does not include the commercial electronic security in health care businesses which are now recorded as discontinued operations. As a result of the announced divestiture in December.
Moving to our 2022 guidance on slide 11, we are planning for total revenue growth in the mid '20s inclusive of organic growth of 7% to 8% and adjusted earnings per share range of $12 up to $12.50 or increasing approximately 15% to 19% versus 2021. On a GAAP basis, we expect the earnings per share range to be $10.10 up to $10.70 inclusive of various one-time charges related to facility moves, deal integration costs, cost reduction, and functional transformation initiatives.
The current estimate for pretax charges is approximately $380 million. From a segment perspective, total Tools and Storage organic growth is expected to be in high single-digits, supported by price, core[Phonetic] breakthrough innovations, continued strong demand across our end markets, and the improvement of our customer inventories. The Industrial segment is expected to achieve high single-digit to low double-digit organic growth, driven by new products, pricing momentum and industrial fasteners and attachment tools in the beginning of a cyclical recovery in auto and aerospace.
As it relates to the acquisitions we believe they will contribute just over 3 billion in revenue in 2022 primarily from MTD and Excel with about 60% of that revenue occurring in the front half. The team is building momentum, and this will be an acquisitive growth driver in 2022 but more importantly, an organic growth driver for years to come.
For the full year, it's still our expectation that Tools and Storage will have a strong year-over-year margin expansion on the core, driven by strong second half improvement as I discussed earlier. Total segment margin will be down as our outdoor acquisitions enter the portfolio with high single-digit profitability. Improving margins from the outdoor acquisitions is a focus in 2022 and of course beyond. We expect to improve these margins to low-double digits, in the one to two-year timeframe in mid-teens and the medium term
For industrial the margin rate is expected to expand year-over-year, leveraging strong revenue growth, productivity and price. Shifting now to the right side of the page, I will outline the drivers of our year-over-year EPS growth at the midpoint. Our plan is to grow our core -- our core earnings base with added benefits from the MTD and Excel acquisitions. As we discussed earlier we are actively addressing the inflationary environment with a 6% to 7% pricing -- set of pricing actions that should allow us to more than fully recover the carryover impact from inflation and the elevated cost to serve adding $1.20 up to $1.30 of EPS.
The carryover impact of our growth investments in SG&A is a headwind of about $0.20 net of our recent cost containment actions. Our outdoor acquisitions are already building momentum and should generate $0.60 of year-over-year benefit ahead of our prior estimates. We also realized a $0.65 benefit from the 2022 impact of our $4 billion share repurchase program. This is partially offset by tax and other below the line item of $0.55. Our full year tax rate assumption is 10% and we are also planning for increased interest expense due to a higher rate environment and the financing needs of our strategic capital deployment.
So in summary, we expect the business to deliver nearly a $1.80 of EPS growth this year to achieve the midpoint of $12.25 of EPS. Now to cover what this means in terms of the first quarter which is expected to be about approximately 13.5% of the full year adjusted EPS. We are planning for tools to have a relatively flat organic growth and industrial to decline in the low single digits reflecting the tough comp in the automotive business. Acquisition should contribute about $950 million in revenue, as the outdoor season kicks off.
Price cost will still be a negative as we experience a significant amount of our full year headwinds in the first quarter. Total company margins should step up from the fourth quarter and in each successive quarter -- successive quarter thereafter. We also intend to execute our $2 billion to $2.5 billion of our previously announced $4 billion share repurchase program here in the first quarter. As you think about the quarterly profile for 2022 consider the following factors; one, 90% of our $800 million headwinds occur in the first half of the year; two, the additional pricing actions I mentioned pays[Phonetic] into the P&L during the first half; and three, the share repurchase begins to occur in the middle of the first quarter.
Therefore, we expect 60% of our annual EPS to be delivered in the second half. For the full year we expect robust free cash flow generation of $2 billion. This plan considered -- considers continued investment in our supply chain, inventory optimization to serve our customers as well as the drawdown of at least $500 million of our working capital as we previously discussed. We are confident in the steps we have taken and are continuing to take to navigate a dynamic supply environment and optimize our factories.
The organization is focused on driving above market organic growth, delivering on our price and cost control measures, successfully integrating MTD and Excel into the portfolio and leveraging the SPD operating model to improve our working capital efficiency in 2022. We expect executing on these actions as well as our $4 billion allocation to repurchase shares will deliver 15% to 19% adjusted earnings per share growth and a historic free cash flow performance in 2022. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Jim to conclude with a summary of our prepared remarks.
