Bob P. Fishman
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Accounting Officer at Pentair
Thank you, John. Please turn to Slide 8 labeled Q1 2022 Pentair Performance. We delivered first quarter sales growth of 15% with core sales increasing 12% with strong price contribution. While inflation continues to accelerate, we were pleased to see price offset inflation for the first time in almost a year. Consumer Solutions delivered core sales growth of 17% and Industrial & Flow Technologies grew core revenue 6%. Segment income increased 5%, while return on sales declined 180 basis points to 17.2%.
The principal contributors to the margin decline were the lower margin impact of recent acquisitions, supply chain inefficiencies and elevated inflation. We were encouraged to see return on sales improve sequentially with strong price contribution. While inflation is showing no signs of moderating and supply chain disruptions remain, we expect return on sales to show strong sequential improvement into the second quarter. Below the line, and expense was just under $4 million. Our share count was 166.5 million, and the adjusted tax rate was 16%.
Adjusted EPS grew 5% to $0.85 and exceeded our guidance for the quarter. We made the decision to exit what has been a very small business in Russia. Exiting the business resulted in a $6 million charge relating to the write-off of receivables, inventories and other costs related to contracts that we will no longer fulfill. This was the right thing to do. And we note that both our sales before and this cost related to our exit were immaterial amounts.
Please turn to Slide 9 labeled Q1 2022 Consumer Solutions performance. Consumer Solutions delivered another strong quarter with sales growing 23% and core sales increasing 17%. The acquisitions of KBI and Pleatco were positive contributors to the top-line. However, they do operate today at lower margins and this resulted in pressure on return on sales. Segment income grew 6%, and price nearly offset inflation in the quarter as we continue to see strong readout in both businesses within Consumer Solutions. Pool sales grew 23% in the quarter, and we continue to see strong momentum entering the beginning of the pool season.
We commented last quarter that we are seeing channel inventory is more in line with historical levels, and while some categories are still catching up, the channel is in much better shape entering the season this year than last. Within pool, we have a relentless focus on creating an even more effortless experience for our customers. We have recently launched a new order status portal that allows customers to have greater visibility on order status information without making calls. We have also enhanced our phone system for easier navigation to ensure that dealers and consumers alike receive the proper and advanced resource support when needed.
One of our key differentiators in pool's long-term success is the loyalty from our dealers. We have long focused on industry-leading sales and technical training to enable our dealers to learn the benefits of our products and help facilitate an easier installation process. We have invested in experienced training centers to allow dealers, as well as builders and service companies to have a more intimate learning of our products. One of our key areas of focus is to enable our customers, both distributors and dealers to advance their businesses. We continue to focus on building our innovation pipeline. We are launching our new IntelliFlo3 pump to create a more efficient flow management experience. We are also launching a higher end version of this pump with a mini automation system on board to provide the consumer with enhanced control and functionality of their pool.
Overall, pool is seeing strong demand from dealers and builders with good visibility through the 2022 season. We continue to carry a healthy backlog in pool, although this has historically been a short cycle business with low lead times. As we continue to increase capacity and hopefully see signs of supply chain inefficiencies easing, we expect backlog to come down through the course of the year. Water Treatment grew sales 24%, which included some contribution from KBI. Residential Water Treatment continued to be focused on complexity reduction and improving margins. Sales were up mid single-digits for the residential business with positive contribution from both affiliated dealers and components.
Commercial Water Solutions continued to see a healthy recovery in its end markets, resulting in a healthy double-digit growth once again. The addition of KBI has improved and broadened [Phonetic] many of our customer relationships. The core Everpure business has enjoyed a strong rebound in quick-service restaurants and convenience stores with improvements starting to come in the hospitality sectors as consumers once again start traveling more. We have been most encouraged with the global nature of the recovery in Commercial Water Solutions. In addition to our total water management efforts, this continues to be an important growth vector for us and is contributing a healthy funnel of new opportunities with current and new distributors, dealers and customers. We're also seeing the foodservice industry, particularly quick-serve restaurants adapting to new standards in restaurant design and equipment that is generating opportunities for new installations and reconfiguration of existing restaurants.
Please turn to Slide 10 labeled Q1 2022 Industrial & Flow Technologies performance. Industrial & Flow Technologies grew sales 4% in the quarter with core revenue increasing 6%. Segment income grew 4% and return on sales increased as all businesses within IFT are making progress on complexity reduction. Residential Flow grew sales 1%, but this included a headwind from a small product line divestiture in the quarter. Overall, Residential Flow continues to see strong demand as it enters its seasonally strongest quarter. The business is being impacted by supply chain inefficiencies and labor shortages, which along with strong demand has resulted in strong backlog for this historically shorter cycle business.
Overall, we expect Residential Flow to have a solid year with price reading out nicely and backlog being worked out as supply chain inefficiency hopefully begin to ease as the year progresses. Commercial Flow grew sales 1% as the focus continues to be on complexity reduction and improving margins. The business has made good progress in SKU reductions, driving productivity, and beginning to move to more of a configure to order instead of engineer to order business model. This is resulting in greater efficiency in the plants, and we have seen several quarters in a row of margin improvement as a result. Industrial Solutions saw sales increase 11%, as larger global beer manufacturers are increasing their capex budget, and we continue to see strong demand in orders and sales for our Sustainable Gas business. The business also benefited from the addition of Pleatco. Overall, the longer cycle Industrial Solutions business has seen solid improvement in orders and backlog, and we expect the top-line momentum to continue as the year progresses.
Please turn to Slide 11 labeled balance sheet and cash flow. The balance sheet ended the first quarter in very strong shape. Our leverage ended the quarter just over one times and our return on invested capital remained in the high-teens. Free cash flow usage in the quarter was more in line with historical trends than what we experienced at the start of last year when sales were more linear through that quarter. To start 20 -- to start 2022, we saw a slow start in January due in part to Omicron related absenteeism in many of our factories. We had a particularly strong last month of the quarter that resulted in higher receivables that we should collect in the second quarter. In addition, we have been advantageously buying higher than usual levels of key components as we manage through today's supply chain inefficiencies. For the year, we continue to expect free cash flow to approximate net income and the second quarter should see traditional strength and free cash flow generation in line with historical trends.
Please turn to Slide 12 labeled Q2 and full-year 2022 Pentair outlook. For the second quarter, we are introducing adjusted EPS guidance of $0.98 to $1.01, which represents a year-over-year increase of 17% to 20%. We expect total sales to grow 11% to 13%, which we believe is a strong showing, given the particularly difficult comparison to the same period last year. We expect segment income to increase 14% to 17%, with corporate expense coming in around $20 million, net interest expense of $5 million to $6 million, and adjusted tax rate of 16%, and a share count of 166.5 million to 167.5 million.
For the full-year, we are modestly increasing our top-line guidance to a range of 9% to 11%, reflecting a slightly better showing in the first quarter in addition to further price actions anticipated to offset continued higher inflation. We continue to expect segment income to increase 10% to 13%, and adjusted EPS in the range of $3.70 to $3.80 or an increase of 9% to 12% for the year. Below the line, we expect corporate expense to be around $80 million, net interest expense of $18 million to $20 million, and adjusted tax rate of approximately 16%, and shares to be around 167 million to 168 million. Finally, as we stated previously, we expect free cash flow to approximate net income.
I'd now like to turn the call over to Jay for Q&A. After which, John will have a few closing remarks. Jay, please open the line for questions. Thank you.
