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: In addition, a slide deck providing detailed financial results for the quarter is also posted on our website.
This quarter e-commerce data is not included in our category overview as the data is not currently available.
It is uncertain when that data will become available in the future.
Today, I am pleased to share our second quarter 2021 results, which build on the momentum from our first quarter as we benefited from elevated demand, expanded distribution and strong execution, all of which led to robust earnings growth.
As we look specifically at the results for the quarter, we maintained top line momentum with organic sales of 12.7% with strong sales across categories and markets around the globe.
We were able to meet that demand while also demonstrating improved cost control and delivering synergies, which partially offset the inflationary headwinds from transportation, tariffs and product input costs.
Our adjusted earnings per share were $0.77, more than double the prior-year, driven by strong organic sales growth, synergy realization, favorable currencies and lower interest expense.
Given our performance in the first half, we are increasing our full fiscal year outlook to the following.
Net sales growth to 5% to 7% adjusted earnings per share to a new range of $3.30 to $3.50 and adjusted EBITDA to a new range of $620 million to $640 million.
Tim will provide more information on both the quarterly results and the revised outlook in a moment.
Turning to category trends.
Consumer demand in our categories remains elevated.
As a reminder, the category data I'm about to provide does not include e-commerce, as Jackie indicated in our opening comments.
Starting with batteries, few changes in consumer behavior that have emerged since the beginning of COVID drove the battery category globally.
First, an increase in the number of devices on per household; and second, an increase in the amount of time devices are being used, which has led to more frequent battery replacement.
During the three months ending February, our brands grew faster than the category and we gained 2.1 share points globally as we benefited from the previously discussed distribution gains.
In the most recent four weeks through March, in markets like the U.S., Australia and the UK, the category experienced year-over-year declines as we lapped the initial spike in COVID related buy.
We anticipated these year-over-year declines, including a 13.9% decline in the U.S. during that four-week timeframe.
However, if you look at those same markets on a two-year basis, there is robust growth when compared to the pre-pandemic levels.
In the U.S., for example, the category was up 14.1% for that four-week period when you compare 2019 to 2021.
Across both the most recent four weeks and the two-year basis, Energizer significantly outpaced the category.
Looking at the U.S. AutoCare category, in the 13 weeks through February, we saw a healthy category growth of 7.4% as the category experienced both an increase in household penetration and existing consumer spending more on cleaning and maintaining their cars.
Given the seasonality of our portfolio, the cold weather and the short-term constraints on our wipes supply which have recently been resolved, Energizer lag category growth in the U.S. Similar to batteries, we are seeing category growth in the latest four weeks and on a two-year basis with Energizer outpacing the category.
Finally, while we don't have e-commerce category data this quarter, our net sales have increased 70% across our combined portfolio, a reflection of our investments and ongoing focus which are paying off and positioning us to lead well into the future.
The environment remains dynamic and we can't predict the impact of vaccines, the virus variance or the resulting consumer habits.
However, in surveys with consumers, many expect their pandemic influence habits to continue, including the increased use of devices such as home health and home office equipment as well as increased focus on their auto cleaning habits.
During the quarter, we faced inflationary headwinds from transportation, tariffs and input costs.
However, we were able to offset a significant portion of these through the delivery of synergies.
As we look to the future, we do not believe that these costs are transitory and have initiated productivity and revenue management efforts to offset them.
Our revenue management efforts are focused in three main areas.
Channel and mix management across our markets, brands and pack sizes, including leveraging the breadth of our strong battery brands from premium to value.
Resetting our promotional framework, including the frequency and depth of promotion and price increases based on a longer-term outlook of product input costs, our innovation pipeline and currency impacts.
As an example of this work, we've recently announced price increases in the U.S. in our AutoCare portfolio to offset the headwinds we are experiencing.
Going forward, we will evaluate a number of factors including macroeconomic conditions, product input costs, transportation costs, market dynamics, innovation and currency to assess the need for additional pricing actions across the balance of our portfolio.
Our internal initiatives designed to reshape our organization and to ensure we are poised for future growth are all progressing well.
Specifically, we are on track to deliver over $120 million in synergies by the end of fiscal 2021, a portion of which is being reinvested in the business through innovation and brand building activities.
We have significantly increased production in the Indonesian plant that we acquired in the first quarter, which provides us with a source of high-quality products at lower costs.
We have built an impressive innovation pipeline for our AutoCare business and have advanced our international growth plans with International AutoCare organic growth for the second quarter at 24%.
Our global product supply team has made significant strides in reshaping our network, which we expect will result in greater efficiency, effectiveness and supply chain resiliency.
And finally, we have launched project to advance our organization's data and analytics capabilities, creating a seamless data flow which starts with the consumer and ease its way through our organization in a more automated manner, will ensure that we are positioned to meet the demands of consumers in a rapidly changing operating environment.
With that, I will now turn things over to Tim who will dive deeper into our financial performance for the quarter and provide more details about our updated outlook for the fiscal year.
As Mark touched on, as we crossed the halfway mark for the fiscal year, we are pleased with our continued momentum.
Our organic revenue growth of 12.7% combined with synergy realization, cost controls, lower interest expense and favorable currency headwinds resulted in strong adjusted earnings per share of $0.77, up more than double the prior-year second quarter and adjusted EBITDA of $148 million, up 20% compared to the prior year.
Taking a deeper look at the organic revenue growth.
We maintained our top line momentum with strong sales across all of our categories and geographies.
Both of our segments showed organic growth with the Americas up nearly 16% and International up 6%, and our Battery and Auto Care businesses grew benefiting from elevated demand and distribution gains that began last summer.
Adjusted gross margin decreased 110 basis points versus the prior year to 40.5% in line with our adjusted gross margin reported in the first quarter.
This was impacted primarily by increased operating costs that resulted from higher tariffs associated with source product to meet elevated demand, transportation, labor and product input cost, all consistent with inflationary trends in the global market.
Additionally, our gross margin was negatively impacted by the lower margin profile associated with recent distribution gains and acquisitions, synergies of $14.2 million and favorable impacts from currency exchange rates partially offset these negative impacts.
As Mark mentioned, we do expect inflationary headwinds over the balance of the current year and into next year.
At the present time, we are essentially fully hedged on a commodity costs for fiscal year 2021.
Looking beyond this year, we will continue to take actions to offset the impact of these headwinds through continuous improvement efforts and pricing actions.
A&P as a percent of sales was 4% relatively flat compared with the prior year's second quarter.
Consistent with our priorities, we invested on an absolute dollar basis in A&P to support our brands and innovation with total A&P spending of $4 million or 19% over the prior year.
Excluding acquisition and integration costs, SG&A as a percent of net sales was 16.7% versus 18.4% in the prior year, primarily the result of elevated sales experienced in the current year.
On an absolute dollar basis, adjusted SG&A increased $6 million in part because of the higher overheads associated with our top line sales growth and foreign exchange rate impacts.
We realized nearly $20 million in synergies this quarter, bringing the total for that first half of 2021 to $40 million.
Since our Battery and Auto Care acquisitions were completed, we have recognized approximately $109 million of synergies, exceeding our initial targets and we expect to realize an additional $10 million to $15 million over the balance of the year.
As I mentioned last quarter, we've taken advantage of favorable debt markets and refinanced a significant portion of our debt over the last 12 months.
We expect these refinancings to contribute to a $30 million reduction in our 2021 interest expense, of which $8 million was realized in the second quarter.
At the end of the quarter, our total debt was approximately $3.5 billion or 4.8 times net debt to credit defined EBITDA, with nearly 80% at fixed interest rates and an all-in cost of debt of 4.2%.
As a result of our strong organic growth in the first half of the fiscal year, we are updating our full year fiscal 2021 outlook for the following key metrics.
Net sales growth is now expected to be between 5% to 7%, owing in large part to a prolonged elevated battery demand in North America and favorable currency impacts.
Adjusted gross margin rate is expected to be essentially flat on a year-over-year basis in line with our previously provided outlook.
Adjusted earnings per share is now expected to be in the range of $3.30 to $3.50.
Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $620 million to $640 million.
And finally, adjusted free cash flow is expected to be at the low end of our previously provided range of $325 million to $350 million due to working capital requirements, mostly related to inventory as we look to rebuild safety stocks.
The revised net sales outlook provided for the full year reflects a low-single digit decline over the balance of the year consistent with our prior outlook.
We began lapping elevated COVID-related battery demand late in the second quarter and we will lap the favorable impacts of weather on our AutoCare business, particularly in refrigerants in the third and fourth quarter.
With respect to gross margin rates, we expect them to remain roughly flat throughout the balance of the year as synergies and the impacts of favorable currency offset inflationary cost pressures and mix shifts.
We will also benefit over the rest of the year as our gross margin in the third and fourth quarter of 2020 was burdened with one-time COVID-related costs of $9 million and $19 million, respectively.
As we turn to the second half of the year, we expect to build on the momentum from the strong first half by executing on our strategic priorities to deliver the full year outlook.
We have had a great first half of fiscal 2021, which is a testament to the efforts of our colleagues around the world to make, ship and deliver the products that our consumers need during this time.
We are focused on winning the day by staying focused on the consumer and delivering for our customers, all while building the foundation to win in the future.

user
sees fy adjusted earnings per share $3.30 to $3.50 including items.
q2 adjusted earnings per share $0.77 from continuing operations.
sees fy sales up 5 to 7 percent.
increased full year outlook to 5% to 7% net sales growth.
sees full year adjusted earnings per share $3.30 to $3.50.

assistant