Despite the many challenges the past year has brought, NTIC achieved record sales in fiscal 2022, thanks to the demand for our ZERUST® Industrial products and services in North America, rebounding Natur-Tec® sales volumes, and record orders for our ZERUST® Oil & Gas solutions. Our consolidated net sales increased by an impressive 31.3% year-over-year to a record $74.2 million.

This achievement is especially significant given the complex business environment we faced in fiscal 2022, including supply chain and shipping issues, persistent inflation, geopolitical conflicts in Europe, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia. Despite these challenges, NTIC’s annual sales have increased by over 87% since fiscal 2017, representing a five-year compound annual growth rate of 13.4%.

We attribute this growth to our continued investment in our business, the success of our long-term growth plans, and the support of our customers, employees, joint venture partners, and suppliers. At NTIC, we remain committed to developing innovative solutions that our global distribution network can sell to increasingly diverse worldwide markets. Our global footprint and technical service approach is extremely valuable to the multinational companies we serve and help differentiate us from our competitors.

We are proud of our strong financial position, which reflects the recent investments we have made to purchase the remaining 50% ownership interest in ZERUST® India and our new facility in Shanghai, China, as well as investments in working capital to support sales growth. This strong financial position provides us with the flexibility to allocate the needed capital to support our future growth initiatives while maintaining our quarterly dividend program.

We remain committed to paying down our revolving line of credit over the course of fiscal 2023 and continue to closely monitor our global markets and capital needs to adjust our dividend policy, as necessary, to maintain our strong financial position. Additionally, NTIC declared cash dividends of $0.28 per share in fiscal 2022, a 43.6% increase over the prior fiscal year.

Our growth and success have not gone unnoticed, and we continue to expand and strengthen our global infrastructure of operating subsidiaries and joint venture partners. We recently acquired the remaining 50% ownership interest in ZERUST® India, which is one of our strongest international markets and moved into our new facility in Shanghai, China, to support our R&D, production, sales, marketing, and training efforts throughout the region. We believe that our presence in these regions will be essential to becoming one of, if not the largest of our geographic markets in the coming years.

Despite the challenges we faced in fiscal 2022, we remain committed to expanding our business, developing innovative solutions, and providing a great place to work. We thank our customers, employees, joint venture partners, and suppliers for their support and look forward to continued growth and success in the years ahead.