Johnson Controls International Plc
Q2 2023 Earnings Call
May 05, 2023, 8:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to the Johnson Controls second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. [Operator instructions] Please note, today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jim Lucas, vice president, investor relations. Please go ahead.
Jim Lucas -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Good morning, and thank you for joining our conference call to discuss Johnson Controls' second quarter fiscal 2023 results. The press release and all related tables issued earlier this morning, as well as the conference call slide presentation, can be found on the Investor Relations portion of our website at johnsoncontrols.com. Joining me on the call today are Johnson Controls' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George Oliver and Chief Financial Officer Olivier Leonetti. Before we begin, let me remind you that during our presentation today, we will make forward-looking statements.
Listeners are cautioned that these statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Johnson Controls. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to carefully review the risk factors and cautionary statements in our most recent Form 10-Q, Form 10-K, and today's release. We will also reference certain non-GAAP measures.
Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are contained in the schedules attached to our press release and in the appendix to this presentation, both of which can be found on the Investor Relations section of Johnson Controls website. I will now turn the call over to George.
George Oliver -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on the call today. Let's begin with Slide 3. We are proud of our second quarter performance, which saw sales, segment EBITDA, and adjusted EPS all exceeding the high end of our guidance.
During the quarter, sales grew 13% organically as we realized strong pricing and improved volumes across both our shorter-cycle global products and longer-cycle business solutions. The overall demand backdrop remains robust with orders growing 8% for business solutions and continued momentum with service orders growing 14% in the quarter as the adoption of our digitally enhanced solutions continues to materialize and provide value for our customers. Our resilient backlog grew 9% to a record $11.7 billion, and our service backlog increased by 15%. We made great progress executing on our higher-margin backlog build and continue to convert at a faster pace, resulting in improved gross margin performance and strong incrementals.