You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: These statements are based solely on information that is now available to us.
Additionally, our future performance may differ due to a number of factors.
We also discuss financial measures that do not conform to U.S. GAAP.
We appreciate your interest in SEE and hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy.
We're working through very exciting and challenging times as we transform SEE.
We're accelerating our strategy to take us to world-class in everything we do.
As you can see on Slide 3, we're in the business to protect, to solve critical packaging challenges and to make our world better than we found it.
I'll share our strategy for growth in automation, digital and sustainability within our global markets.
Chris will review our financial results and outlook in more detail.
I will then end with closing remarks and before opening the call for Q&A.
Net sales increased 15% with 9% volume growth, led by strength in Americas, in Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 1%, and margins were under pressure at 19.8% compared to 22.6% last year.
This year, we experienced higher volumes, additional productivity gains and pricing actions against dramatic inflationary cost pressures and supply disruption.
Also, relative to last year, we had pandemic-induced surges in essential products and minimized expenses due to lockdowns.
On a per-share basis, earnings of $0.79 were up $0.03 compared to last year.
We generated free cash flow of $102 million in the first six months of the year, which compared to $129 million in the first half of last year.
We are raising our full year sales and adjusted earnings per share outlook and reiterating our prior guidance for adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.
Our SEE Operating Engine is delivering sales growth and productivity gains mitigated the adverse supply environment in the second quarter.
This engine, coupled with expected price realization, is enabling us to maintain our adjusted EBITDA guidance for the full year and drive continuous improvement going forward.
I want to highlight our SEE operating model on Slide 5, which clearly defines where we're taking SEE in the future and what you should expect us to deliver.
Our organic sales target is built up in a historically stable packaging market that grows 1% to 3%.
We've been adding to this base with our innovations in automation, digital and sustainability to take us to an organic sales growth target of 3% to 5%.
Our operating leverage target is over 30%, which drives adjusted EBITDA growth to 5% to 7%.
We're targeting adjusting earnings-per-share growth of greater than 10% and free cash flow conversion of more than 50%.
Our SEE operating model delivers significant cash for our disciplined capital allocation.
We are fueling growth opportunities with our investments in innovation and capex.
Through SEE Ventures investments, we're utilizing our balance sheet to incubate disruptive technologies and new business models to accelerate our future growth.
We're also returning value to our shareholders through share repurchase and dividends.
We approved a new $1 billion share repurchase program and recently increased our dividend by 25%.
Our approach to capital allocation reflects our confidence in our vision, strategy and execution of our SEE Operating Engine.
We encourage you to visit our website where you can read about our innovation and customer success stories.
We create measurable value for our customers through automated and sustainable solutions that are designed to maximize safety, minimize waste, protect goods and deliver productivity savings.
In the second quarter, we had strong growth across our end markets.
We are leading a dramatic shift to a touchless, automated environment for all customers, resulting in more than 30% growth in our SEE automation portfolio.
We're ahead of our plan to double our equipment business in the next three years.
For our food customers, our SEE Automation growth is a result of our integrated touchless systems with our high-performance Cryovac materials.
Bookings for AUTOBAG and auto box equipment were up more than 50% in the first half of the year, and we're investing more than $30 million in capacity expansion to help meet the strong demand for our equipment solutions.
Our automated solutions address labor shortages, productivity and employee safety.
We're at the table with our customers, providing connectivity from our operations to theirs, which is helping all of us exceed our sustainability commitments.
Restaurants, sporting events, conferences and other large public menus are cautiously reopening.
Our solutions with high exposure to food service returned to growth for the first time since Q1 2020.
We are seeing growth in our Cryovac Barrier Bags utilized across all proteins, including cheese and seafood; and Cryovac pouches for soups, sauces, beverages and other liquids.
Our industrial markets were up double digits in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions compared to last year when there were pandemic-related shutdowns.
We continue to capitalize on global e-commerce growth and increased demands for recyclable materials, fiber-based solutions and automated packaging that minimizes waste.
In medical, pharma and life sciences, we play a key role in the COVID-19 vaccine distribution benefit from growth in online shipments of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.
Now turning to Slide seven for an update on SEE Automation.
In the first half of the year, equipment, systems and service sales were up 26% and accounted for 8% of our net sales.
We're on track to achieve approximately $425 million or 12% growth in 2021, of which more than $250 million will come from equipment and systems.
Our bookings for automated equipment are strong.
We're confident in our ability to exceed $500 million by 2025.
When you factor in a 3 times plus solutions multiplier, including growth in parts and service from the installed base and the flow-through of materials, this results in a $5 billion plus potential growth opportunity over the 10-year solutions life cycle.
The solutions multiple is why we are so excited about SEE Automation.
Sustainability is in everything we do and fueling our growth.
We are making significant progress on our 2025 sustainability pledge with nearly 50% of our solutions already designed for recyclability.
Our innovation strategy is focused on maintaining the high-quality standards that our customers are accustomed to in food safety, minimizing waste and protecting goods.
We are continuously optimizing our high-performance materials and incorporating more recycled and/or renewable content to drive circularity and make sustainability more affordable.
We're also collaborating and investing with partners on mechanical and advanced recycling.
As part of SEE Ventures, we recently joined the Closed Loop Circulars Plastics Fund.
This fund invests in scalable recycling technology, equipment upgrades and infrastructure solutions to advance the recovery of plastics in the U.S. and Canada.
You can see a handful of our solutions designed for recyclability on this slide with many more shared on our website.
Earlier this year, we established a net-zero carbon emissions goal across our operations by 2040.
We're taking many actions to reduce our energy consumption, such as investing in touchless automation, upgrading air compression systems and utilizing LED lighting.
We're also investing in renewable energy sources, including solar and wind.
Between 2012 and 2020, our greenhouse gas emissions intensity decreased by a remarkable 50%.
We'll share more details in our upcoming annual sustainability report that will be available on our website in the early fall.
I'll now pass the call to Chris to review our results in more detail.
Let's start on Slide nine to review our quarterly net sales growth by segment and by region.
In the second quarter, net sales totaled $1.3 billion, up 15% as reported, up 11% in constant dollars.
Food was up 6% in constant dollars versus last year, and protective increased 20%.
EMEA and the Americas were both up double digits: EMEA up 16%; and the Americas up 13%.
APAC was flat versus last year with a modest decline in volumes, offset by favorable price.
On Slide 10, you see organic sales volume and pricing trends by segment and by region.
In the second quarter, overall volume growth was up 9% on favorable price of 3%.
Let's start with volumes.
Food volumes were up 4%; with the Americas, up 7%; and EMEA up 2%.
This was offset by a 3% decline in APAC, largely related to Australia herd rebuilding.
Protective volumes were up 15%; with the Americas, up 13%; and EMEA up 36%, while APAC had a modest decline.
Q2 price was favorable 3%.
You can see that Protective had 5% in favorable pricing, and Food was 1% due to timing of pricing actions and formula pass-throughs.
We have implemented several price increases and expect 2021 price realization to be $275 million.
On Slide 11, we present our consolidated sales and adjusted EBITDA walks.
Having already discussed sales, let me comment on our adjusted EBITDA performance in Q2.
We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $263 million, up 1% compared to last year, and margins of 19.8%, down 280 basis points, reflecting the impact of the current inflationary environment and supply chain disruptions.
We are leveraging our higher volumes at 40% as we experienced a more favorable product mix.
Despite favorable pricing in the quarter, you can see how higher input costs weighed on our EBITDA performance with an unfavorable price/cost spread of $36 million.
Operational costs increased approximately $13 million relative to last year.
This increase reflects investments to support growth, inflation on labor and indirect material costs as well as the normalization of spend in the quarter.
This was partially offset by $13 million in Reinvent SEE productivity benefits.
We expect our price/cost spread to improve sequentially in the third quarter.
However, we do not expect to see positive price/cost spread until Q4.
Adjusted earnings per share in Q2 was $0.79 compared to $0.76 in Q2 2020.
Our adjusted tax rate was 25.6%, reflecting a more favorable mix of foreign earnings.
Our weighted average diluted shares outstanding in the quarter were 153 million.
We exited the quarter with 150 million shares outstanding.
Turning to Slide 12.
Here, we provide an update on Reinvent SEE.
We have achieved $28 million of benefits in the first half of the year and remain on track to realize approximately $65 million in 2021.
Our commercial work stream is accelerating innovation and driving new customer wins in core and adjacent markets.
Turning to segment results on Slide 13, starting with Food.
In Q2, Food net sales of $737 million were up 6% on a constant dollar basis.
Cryovac Barrier Bags and pouches returned to growth, increasing approximately 10% and accounting for nearly 50% of the segment sales.
This growth reflects the beginning of food service recovery relative to last year when protein plants and restaurants, sporting events and other large venues were shut down.
Sales in case-ready and roll stock retail applications, which accounts for just over 40% of segment sales, were down low single digits as supply disruptions impacted our results.
In addition, this is against the backdrop of tough comps given the surge in demand from shutdowns a year ago.
Equipment parts and sales -- and service sales, which accounts for 8% of the segment, were up nearly 40% in the quarter.
We are experiencing increased demand for our automated solutions as our customers around the world invest in their processing plants to upgrade aged equipment and drive productivity.
Adjusted EBITDA in Food of $158 million in Q2 declined 6% compared to last year with margins at 21.5%, down 360 basis points.
This decline was related to elevated input costs, supply disruptions and the timing of pricing actions.
On Slide 14, we highlight Protective segment results.
In constant dollars, net sales increased 20% to $592 million.
Industrial was up approximately 30% relative to last year when automobile and general manufacturers were forced to temporarily shut down their operations.
Fulfillment, which is largely driven by e-commerce growth, was up approximately 10% on a global basis, led by double-digit growth in automated equipment, inflatable solutions, paper and temperature assurance.
We leveraged our broad portfolio and global scale to meet increased demand despite ongoing supply issues, such as industry-related chip shortages out of Asia.
The $30 million investments in capacity that Ted referenced earlier will help us meet increased customer demands for automation equipment.
As a reminder, approximately 55% of our Protective sales are derived from industrial end markets and the remaining 45% from fulfillment and e-commerce.
Adjusted EBITDA of $107 million increased 17% from Q2 with margins at 18.1%, down 100 basis points versus last year.
Higher sales and productivity gains helped mitigate higher input and supply disruption costs.
Now let's turn to free cash flow on Slide 15.
In the first half of 2021, we generated $102 million of free cash flow.
Relative to the same period last year, higher earnings and lower restructuring payments were offset by higher employee-related costs and capex investments to support growth and innovation.
On Slide 16, we outline our capital allocation strategy.
We will maintain a strong balance sheet while driving attractive returns on invested capital and supporting profitable growth initiatives.
In addition, we have a healthy acquisition pipeline that aligns with our growth strategy.
On this slide, I want to highlight our growth investments.
We are focusing our capex on breakthrough processes, automation, digital and sustainability.
With SEE Ventures, we have invested approximately $40 million in early stage disruptive technologies and business models that are expected to accelerate our strategy and innovation efforts.
As it relates to returning capital to shareholders, in Q2, we were an active buyer of our stock.
We repurchased 6.1 million shares for $299 million during the first six months of 2021, reflecting confidence in our vision, strategy and execution.
And as Ted noted, today, we announced a new $1 billion share repurchase program, continuing our commitment to return value to shareholders.
This new program has no expiration date and replaces the previous authorization.
During the second quarter, we also announced an increase to our quarterly cash dividend of 25%.
We are raising our net sales guidance, reflecting strong first half sales performance and outlook for the remainder of the year.
For net sales, we estimate $5.4 billion to $5.5 billion or 10% to 12% as-reported growth and 8% to 10% in constant dollars compared to our previously provided $5.25 billion to $5.35 billion range.
At the midpoint, the $150 million increase in constant dollar sales largely reflects additional pricing.
We continue to anticipate adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $1.12 billion to $1.15 billion.
On a reported basis, adjusted EBITDA is expected to grow 7% to 9%.
Higher sales are expected to help offset increased material and supply disruption costs.
Given the timing of pricing actions, we anticipate a modest sequential improvement in EBITDA in Q3 with a more meaningful improvement in Q4.
We are raising our 2021 outlook for adjusted earnings per share to $3.45 to $3.60, and we continue to expect a 45-55 first half, second half percentage split.
Our outlook assumes 153 million average shares outstanding, one million reduction from our prior guidance, given share repurchases in the first half, and an adjusted effective tax rate of approximately 26%.
And lastly, our free cash flow outlook continues to be $520 million to $570 million.
There is no change to our outlook for 2021 capex of approximately $210 million and Reinvent SEE restructuring and associated payments of approximately $40 million.
As you can see on the slide, we wanted to provide a few variables as it relates to our 2021 guidance range.
The low end of our range would assume the magnitude and duration of material inflation and supply chain headwinds persist longer than anticipated and a slower pace of food service recovery.
The high end implies market and geographic share gains; continued strength in automation, industrials, e-commerce and food; and overperformance of our SEE Operating Engine.
With that, let me now pass the call back to Ted for closing remarks.
We are clearly defining where we are taking SEE in the future and what you should expect us to deliver with our SEE operating model.
We differentiate ourselves in the markets we serve with a broad set of innovative packaging solutions, global service scale, entrepreneurship and agility.
Our people are working hard to exceed our customers' expectations.
This is core to who we are.
Our talent is driving our transformation to world-class.
We will continue to focus on 0 harm and protecting our people as the pandemic continues.
We are reinventing everything we do from how we innovate to how we solve our customers' most critical packaging challenges.
Our strategy is working.
We are creating sustainable long-term value for our stakeholders in making our world better than we found it.
Operator, we would like to begin the Q&A session.

user
sees fy adjusted earnings per share $3.45 to $3.60.
q2 sales $1.3 billion versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $1.28 billion.
sees fy sales $5.4 billion to $5.5 billion.
q2 adjusted earnings per share $0.79.
raising 2021 sales and earnings per share outlook.

assistant