Our talented team of sales, marketing, services and development professionals have continued to make progress on our strategic plan of offering hybrid distribution solutions that allow our channel partners to meet the technology demands of
end-user
customers. We are enabling our sales partners to accelerate their transformation to the digital world of opportunity. Our hybrid distribution model delivered strong results in fiscal year 2021 as a result of increased sales volumes and decreased costs. For fiscal year 2021, net sales increased 3.4% to $3.2 billion, or a 5.5% year-over-year increase on an organic basis. Fiscal year 2021 GAAP operating income increased to $61.5 million, and
non-GAAP
operating income increased to $93.1 million, up 18.0% year-over-year. On a GAAP basis, net income for fiscal year 2021 totaled $45.4 million, or $1.78 per diluted share.
Non-GAAP
net income totaled $69.9 million, or $2.74 per diluted share. For more information on our
non-GAAP
measures and reconciliations to GAAP measures, see
“Non-GAAP
Financial Information” beginning on page 31 of our Annual Report on Form
10-K
filed on August 24, 2021.
COVID-19
and the pandemic related containment measures have had an impact on our business, suppliers’ businesses and sales partners’ businesses. The negative impacts to net sales from the pandemic, including declines in customer demand and supply chain disruptions, were most pronounced during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020, and recovered throughout fiscal year 2021. We have also experienced increased employee related healthcare and prevention costs. While we are unable to predict the ultimate impact that
COVID-19
will have on our business, certain technologies have benefited from the widespread adoption of work-from-home, such as unified communication solutions (UCaaS) and other collaboration solutions and associated peripherals, as well as the accelerated shift to digitize and automate processes. In July 2020, we initiated a $30 million expense reduction plan designed to better align the cost structure for our wholesale distribution business with lower sales volumes as a result of the
COVID-19
pandemic. The expense reduction plan included salary reductions for our executive team through December 31, 2020 and elimination of cash retainers for the Board through December 31, 2020, along with other cost saving measures. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, we recognized approximately $9.3 million for restructuring and other charges, largely for severance and employee benefits for employees who left the Company as part of this plan.
The Compensation Committee strives to provide our NEOs with a compensation package that balances short-term and long-term compensation. We believe that our current executive compensation program, consisting of a mix of base salary, retirement contributions, annual performance-based cash incentive awards and both performance-based and service-based grants of equity, (i) provides a predictable and transparent structure for executive compensation, (ii) provides a significant percentage of a NEO’s compensation through variable performance-based vehicles and (iii) attracts, retains and motivates our NEOs.
Our executive compensation program emphasizes performance-based pay. The elements of compensation and the general mix of compensation among the various elements remained largely unchanged from the previous year, except, for fiscal 2021, to update the mix of equity awards to the NEOs to reintroduce stock options in place of performance-based restricted stock. In fiscal 2022, the Compensation Committee determined to reintroduce performance-based restricted stock into the mix of equity awards. In addition, our fiscal 2021 cash incentive plan was updated to provide for two
six-month
measurement periods and updated metrics for performance, considering the ongoing uncertainty in the market.
Our financial performance during fiscal 2021 is reflected in the compensation of each of our NEOs for fiscal 2021, particularly with respect to payouts pursuant to our annual cash incentive program. Our cash incentive opportunity is designed so that, if our financial results, as measured by certain
non-GAAP
operating income and revenue numbers, reflect an increase in the financial performance of the Company, then our executives should realize a greater cash incentive. In addition, individual performance also is taken into account by the Compensation Committee. Awards are also capped at 200% of each executive’s target bonus regardless of our financial performance.
For fiscal year 2021, the cash incentives paid to our CEO increased from fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019 based on (i) our financial performance and (ii) the Compensation Committee’s
pre-established
Management Incentive Plan (“MIP”) operating targets for the cash incentive opportunity. The value of the equity awarded to our CEO also increased in fiscal 2021, following a review by the Compensation Committee of realizable value of existing equity awards, a review of the CEO’s compensation against the market and in light of the extraordinary efforts of the CEO during our transformation and period of economic uncertainty. We believe this result is appropriately aligned with the Company’s fiscal 2021 financial performance.