Specifically, in the quarter, sales increased 12% to a little over $1 billion.
This is only the fourth time in Lamb Weston's history that we topped $1 billion of sales in a quarter.
Sales volumes were up 6%.
Price mix was up 6% as we realized benefits from our previously announced pricing actions in each of our four segments.
Gross profit in the quarter declined $18 million as the benefit of increased sales was more than offset by higher manufacturing and transportation costs on a per pound basis.
Double-digit inflation for commodities and transportation costs accounted for almost 90% of the increase in cost per pound.
As a result of these efforts, gross margin increased sequentially versus the first quarter by 500 basis points to more than 20%.
Our SG&A increased $7 million in the quarter, largely due to a couple of factors.
Second, it includes a $2.5 million increase in advertising and promotional expenses as we stepped up support for our retail products.
We had approximately $2 million of ERP-related expenses in the quarter, which consisted primarily of consulting expenses.
That's down from about $5 million of similar-type expenses in the prior-year quarter.
Diluted earnings per share in the quarter was $0.22, down $0.44.
About $0.28 of the decline was related to costs associated with the redemption and write-off of previously unamortized debt issuance costs related to the senior notes that were originally issued in connection with our spin-off from ConAgra in November 2016.
Excluding the impact of these items, adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.50, which is down $0.16 due to lower income from operations and equity method earnings.
Sales for our global segment were up 9% in the quarter.
price mix was up 5%, reflecting a balance of higher prices charged for freight, pricing actions associated with customer contract renewals and inflation-driven price escalators.
Volume was up 4%.
Global's product contribution margin, which is gross profit less A&P expenses, declined 13% to $81 million.
Sales increased 30% with volume up 22% and price mix up 8%.
Foodservice's product contribution margin rose 19% to $104 million as favorable price mix and higher sales volumes more than offset higher manufacturing and distribution cost per pound.
price mix increased 5%, reflecting the initial benefits of pricing actions in our branded portfolio, higher prices charged for freight and improved mix.
Sales volume declined 4% as an increase in branded product volume was more than offset by lower shipments of private label products, resulting from incremental losses of certain low-margin business.
Retail's product contribution margin declined 29% to $21 million.
Higher manufacturing and distribution cost per pound, a $2 million increase in A&P expenses and lower sales volumes drove the decline.
We ended the first half of fiscal 2022 with almost $625 million of cash and $1 billion of availability on our undrawn revolver.
In the first half, we generated more than $205 million of cash from operations.
That's down about $110 million versus the first half of the prior year due primarily to lower earnings.
During the first half of the year, we spent nearly $150 million in capital expenditures as we continued construction of our chopped and formed expansion in American Falls, Idaho and our new processing lines in American Falls in China.
In the first half of the year, we returned $145 million to shareholders, including nearly $70 million in dividends and $76 million of share repurchases.
This includes $50 million of share repurchases in the second quarter alone.
Last month, we announced a 4% increase in our quarterly dividend rate, which equates to approximately $144 million annually and a $250 million increase to our current share repurchase plan, reflecting our confidence in the long-term potential of our business.
As a result, we have about $344 million authorized for share repurchases under the updated plan.
As I referenced earlier, during the quarter, we redeemed and issued nearly $1.7 billion of senior notes.
In doing so, our average debt maturity increased from four years to more than seven years and we reduced our annual interest expense by approximately $8.5 million.
We continue to expect our full year sales growth in fiscal 2022 to be above our long-term target of low to mid-single digits.
In the third quarter, we anticipate price mix will be up sequentially versus the 6% increase that we delivered in the second quarter as the benefit of previously announced product pricing actions in each of our core segments continues to build.
We expect volume growth in the third quarter will decelerate sequentially versus the 6% we delivered in second quarter as a result of the near-term impact of COVID variants on restaurant traffic and demand, the macro industry supply chain constraints and labor challenges that will continue to affect production run rates and throughput in our factories and global logistics disruptions and container shortages that affect both domestic and export shipments.
For the full year, we expect our gross margin will be 600 to 700 basis points below our pre-pandemic margin rate of 25% to 26%, implying a target range of 18% to 20%.
That's a change from the 17% to 21% range that we provided in our previous outlook.
Below gross margin, we expect our SG&A expenses to step up $100 million to $110 million in the third and fourth quarters as we begin to design the second phase of our new ERP project.
We expect our interest expense to be approximately $110 million, excluding the $53 million of costs associated with the redemption of the senior notes in the second quarter.
We previously estimated interest expense to be approximately $115 million.
Our estimates for total depreciation and amortization expense of approximately $190 million and effective tax rate of approximately 22% and capital expenditures of approximately $450 million remains unchanged.

Summary:
Specifically, in the quarter, sales increased 12% to a little over $1 billion.
Diluted earnings per share in the quarter was $0.22, down $0.44.
Excluding the impact of these items, adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.50, which is down $0.16 due to lower income from operations and equity method earnings.
We continue to expect our full year sales growth in fiscal 2022 to be above our long-term target of low to mid-single digits.