We delivered another strong quarter ahead of our expectations, raised our outlook for the second half and announced an agreement to acquire Vestcom, a leader in shelf-edge pricing and branded labeling solutions in the U.S. Vestcom has roughly $400 million in revenue with a consistent history of strong growth and above company average margins.
In the second quarter, earnings rebounded significantly as sales grew 29% on a constant currency basis, reflecting a strong rebound in RBIS and IHM and continued strength in LGM.
The quarter was even more impressive relative to 2019, with revenue up 14%, EBITDA margins up 80 basis points and earnings per share up 30%.
Compared to 2019, margins expanded further as the segment grew 25% on a constant currency basis and 14% organically, driven by strength in both high-value product categories, particularly Intelligent Labels as well as the core apparel label business as retailers and brands continued to gear up for a strong rebound in end demand.
Enterprisewide, Intelligent Labels sales were up 40% compared to 2019.
It's a high-growth, high-margin business generating rough $400 million in annual revenue.
As Mitch and Deon already mentioned, Vestcom's annual revenue is roughly $400 million, with strong historical growth and EBITDA margins above our company average, including synergies.
The purchase price of $1.45 billion represents an EBITDA multiple below our overall company multiple, and we expect this deal to be accretive to earnings per share by 2022.
As Mitch said earlier, we delivered another strong quarter with adjusted earnings per share of $2.25, which was above our expectations by about $0.10 and roughly $1 per share above prior year, driven by significant revenue growth.
Sales were up 29% ex currency and 28% on an organic basis compared to prior year, driven by strong, broad-based demand and the benefit from easier comparisons, given that the pandemic had the biggest impact on our results in Q2 of last year.
Compared to 2019, our growth has also been strong with organic sales up 11% versus Q2 2019.
Our strong growth, combined with productivity gains, more than offset the headwind of last year's temporary cost reduction actions as well as an increasing inflation and new organic investments to deliver an adjusted operating margin of 12.8%, up 210 basis points from last year.
We realized $17 million of net restructuring savings in the quarter, the majority of which represented carryover from projects we have pulled forward into 2020.
Year-to-date, we've generated $388 million of free cash flow with $206 million in the second quarter, up significantly compared to previous years.
In the first half of the year, we paid $108 million in dividends and repurchased over 500,000 shares at an aggregate cost of $95 million, for a total of $203 million returned in cash to shareholders so far this year.
And as I said earlier, our balance sheet is strong with a net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.3 at quarter end.
Label and Graphic Materials sales were up 17% ex currency and 16% on an organic basis, driven by higher volume and pricing.
Compared to 2019, sales were up 11% on an organic basis.
Label and Packaging Materials sales were up roughly 12% organically, with strong volume growth in both the high-value product categories and the base business.
Graphics and Reflective sales continued to rebound nicely compared to the trough we saw in Q2 of last year and were up 49% organically.
And emerging markets overall were up roughly 20%, continuing their strength from the first quarter.
The Asia Pacific region grew roughly 20%, led by significant growth in India, in the ASEAN region with easier comps, given the pandemic impacts we saw in Q2 last year.
And Latin America grew over 30% with particular strength in Brazil.
And while LGM's adjusted operating margin remained strong, it decreased slightly from last year to 14.5%.
Shifting now to Retail Branding and Information Solutions, RBIS sales were up 73% ex currency and 72% on an organic basis, as growth was strong in both the high-value categories and the base business due in part to lower prior year comps.
Compared to 2019, organic growth was 14%.
Intelligent Labels sales were up organically roughly 65% and up 40% compared to 2019.
Adjusted operating margin for the segment increased to 13.1% as the benefits from higher volume and productivity more than offset the headwind from prior year temporary cost reduction actions, higher employee-related costs and growth investments.
Sales increased 39% ex currency and 33% on an organic basis, reflecting strong growth in industrial categories, particularly in automotive applications, which more than offset a decline in personal care tapes due to tougher comps.
Compared to 2019, sales were up 6% on an organic basis.
Adjusted operating margin increased 490 basis points to 11.7% as the benefit from higher volume more than offset the headwind from prior year temporary cost reduction actions and higher employee-related costs.
We have raised our guidance for adjusted earnings per share to be between $8.65 and $8.95, a $0.20 increase to the midpoint of the range.
We now anticipate 14% to 16% ex currency sales growth for the full year above our previous expectations, driven by both higher volume and the impact of higher prices.
In particular, the extra week in the fourth quarter of 2020 will be a headwind of a little more than one point to reported sales growth and a roughly $0.15 headwind to earnings per share in 2021.
We estimate Q1 benefited by roughly $0.15 based on the shift of the calendar and then anticipate a roughly $0.30 headwind in Q4.
The anticipated tailwind from currency translation is now roughly 3.5 points to sales growth and $35 million in operating income for the year based on current rates.
And we now estimate that incremental pre-tax savings from restructuring, net of transition costs, will contribute $60 million to $65 million, down somewhat from our April estimate as the strong demand environment has led us to delay certain projects.
And given the increased outlook for earnings and working capital productivity, we are now targeting to generate over $700 million of free cash flow this year, which is up roughly 30% from last year and 40% from 2019.
There are four primary drivers which are each worth roughly $0.15 plus or minus, in the second half compared to the first half.

Summary:
As Mitch said earlier, we delivered another strong quarter with adjusted earnings per share of $2.25, which was above our expectations by about $0.10 and roughly $1 per share above prior year, driven by significant revenue growth.
We have raised our guidance for adjusted earnings per share to be between $8.65 and $8.95, a $0.20 increase to the midpoint of the range.