We delivered growth of more than 1.2 times the market, which exceeded our expectations for the period.
We delivered sales growth of 10.5% versus 2019 and sequential volume improvements throughout the quarter until the omicron variant impacted our December performance.
Our strong sales results and elevated operating expenses resulted in an adjusted earnings per share of $0.57 for the quarter.
As a result, we are now confident we will exceed our 1.2 times the market growth target for the full fiscal year.
Our year-to-date growth is exceeding our 1.2 times the industry target for the year and is being driven by our supply chain strength and our Recipe for Growth strategy.
We also returned over $650 million of cash to our shareholders during the quarter.
Here are our second quarter fiscal 2022 financial headlines as seen on Slide 9: sales growth of 41.2% compared to last year, also up 10.5% versus fiscal 2019, leading to our highest Q2 sales ever; good management of our product cost inflation, recording the highest gross profit in absolute dollar terms for any Q2 at Sysco; a doubling of adjusted operating income and a 62.9% increase in adjusted EBITDA compared to last year, notwithstanding a cost environment which worsened during the quarter; continued investment against our long-term Recipe for Growth with $44 million of operating expense investments against our strategic investments, creating momentum with our commercial capabilities; proactive action on the COVID-generated labor and safety environments in which we are operating with $73 million in transitory snapback operating investments, such as recruiting costs, hiring marketing, vaccination promotion, contract labor, and sign-on and retention bonuses in the quarter.
With respect to our capital allocation, we refinanced elements of our long-term debt during the quarter, and we returned $657 million of cash to shareholders.
Second quarter sales were $16.3 billion, an increase of 41.2% from fiscal 2021 and a 10.5% increase from fiscal 2019.
Local case volume within the subset of USFS, our U.S. broadline operations, increased 17.6% while total case volume within U.S. broadline operations increased 22.5%.
SYGMA sales were up 16.5% versus fiscal 2021 and up 15.3% versus fiscal 2019 even with the large customer rationalization we disclosed earlier, which we expect will be complete on a comparable basis following Q3.
International sales were up 43% versus fiscal 2021 and down approximately 3% versus fiscal 2019.
Foreign exchange rates had a positive impact of 0.3% on Sysco's sales results.
We continue to monitor the impact on our customers and on our business as international restrictions are starting to ease, including in Ireland and the U.K. Inflation continued to be a factor during the quarter at approximately 14.6% in our U.S. broadline business.
Gross profit for the enterprise was approximately $3 billion in the second quarter, increasing 37.8% versus the second quarter of fiscal 2021 and also exceeding gross profit in fiscal 2019 by 4%.
Gross margin rate was 17.7% during the quarter with the margin rate math impacted by product inflation.
Adjusted operating expense came in at $2.4 billion with a combination of planned and unexpected expense increases from the prior year really driven by four things: first, the increased variable costs associated with significantly increased volumes; second, as you can see on Slide 10, more than $73 million of one time and short-term transitory expenses associated with the snapback, which we expect to decline in the third quarter.
While we have increased wages in select locations, those increases are not material and have the opportunity to be offset by productivity and cost-out improvements going forward; third, $44 million of purposeful operating expense investments against our Recipe for Growth initiatives, like personalization, digital sales tools, and assortment capabilities, which remain on track to be elevated for the rest of the year; and fourth, the productivity expense challenges Kevin referenced earlier, including ramp-up time associated with new hire productivity in our warehouses and trucks, elevated overtime and third-party labor support in the face of staff absences.
Together, the snapback investments and the transformation costs totaled approximately $116 million of operating expenses this quarter and negatively impacted our adjusted earnings per share by approximately $0.17.
All in, we leveraged our adjusted operating expense structure and delivered expense as a percentage of sales of 14.7%, which is flat from fiscal 2019 and down 145 basis points from fiscal 2021.
Finally, for the second quarter of fiscal 2022, adjusted operating income increased $262 million from last year to $496 million.
This was primarily driven by a 45% improvement in U.S. foodservice and continued progress on profitability from international partially offset by SYGMA.
Adjusted earnings per share increased $0.40 to $0.57 for the second quarter compared to last year.
Cash flow from operations was $377 million on a year-to-date basis, driven by our higher income and lower interest, offset by higher tax payments and a significant investment in working capital.
Net capex was $175.9 million, somewhat lower than expected given increased lead times on fleet and equipment.
Adjusted free cash flow year to date was $201 million.
At the end of the second quarter, we had $1.4 billion of cash and cash equivalents on hand.
We also commenced our share repurchase program during the second quarter and repurchased approximately 5.7 million shares for a total of $416 million at an average share price of $72.30.
This was in addition to paying our quarterly dividend of $0.47 per share in October.
While our track record goes back decades, as you can see on Slide 16, over the last 7 years cumulatively, we have returned over $12 billion of cash to shareholders.
As a result, we are reaffirming our long-term guidance that for fiscal 2024, Sysco will deliver adjusted earnings per share growth of at least 30% over our record 2019 earnings per share of $3.55.
For the full year, we expect adjusted earnings per share of approximately $3 to $3.10.
This translates to adjusted earnings per share in the back half of about $1.60 to $1.70.
In a typical pre-COVID fiscal year, adjusted earnings per share for our second half is generally weighted around 40% to Q3 and 60% in Q4 due to normal seasonality of our business.

Summary:
Our strong sales results and elevated operating expenses resulted in an adjusted earnings per share of $0.57 for the quarter.
Second quarter sales were $16.3 billion, an increase of 41.2% from fiscal 2021 and a 10.5% increase from fiscal 2019.
Adjusted earnings per share increased $0.40 to $0.57 for the second quarter compared to last year.