Christopher J. Stephens
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Sealed Air
Great. Let's start on slide 13 to review our third quarter net sales of $1.4 billion by segment and by region. In constant dollars, net sales were up 5%, with 9% growth in Food, while Protective was down 2%. By region, all grew: EMEA, up 7%; APAC, up 5%; and Americas, up 4%. On slide 14, I'd like to highlight a strong improvement in profitability with Q3 adjusted EBITDA of $293 million, increased $22 million or 8% compared to last year, with margins of 20.9%, up 170 basis points. This performance was driven by positive net price realization, which we define as year-over-year price realization, less inflation on direct material, nonmaterial and labor costs, as well as productivity gains, which more than offset lower volumes and FX impacts in the quarter.
Productivity gains of $6 million in Q3, and we had -- that was total, and $6 million in the quarter, and we now expect approximately $30 million for the full year, down from previous expectations of approximately $45 million due to supply disruptions, labor challenges and lower volumes. As it relates to adjusted net earnings in Q3, our adjusted tax rate was 25.6% compared to 24.9% in the same period last year. In the quarter, we were an active buyer of our stock with approximately 114,000 shares repurchased at a cost of approximately $30 million. Our weighted average diluted shares outstanding in Q3 '22 was 146.6 million, compared to 151.4 million in Q3 '21. At quarter end, we had $616 million remaining under our authorized share repurchase program.
Turning to segment results on slide 15, starting with Food. In Q3, Food net sales of $830 million were up 9% on an organic basis, which consisted of 13% price realization to help offset inflationary pressures across all cost categories and volume declines of 4%. Volume declines of 5% in Americas, 2% in EMEA were partially offset by 3% volume growth in APAC, led by strong demand for our automated solutions and share gains in that region. In Americas and EMEA, the volume decline was primarily attributable to customers seeking to dual source our case-ready roll stock products as a result of supply constraints we experienced in late 2021 and early 2022.
We estimate this impact represents a sales decline of approximately 3% compared to prior year. So excluding this 3%, our Food business was slightly better than the low single-digit overall Food retail market decline. Our team has worked tirelessly to navigate through the shortages, obtain additional supply and reformulate, where necessary, to meet customer needs. Thanks to the efforts of our teams, we are working through the sales cycle and now we've the product and inventory to get this business back. Food automation sales, which include equipment, systems, parts and services, account for approximately 7% of segment sales and were up mid-single digits. Food adjusted EBITDA of $185 million in Q3 increased 14% in constant dollars compared to last year, with margins at 22.3%, up 110 basis points.
Protective net sales of $571 million were flat organically, with positive price realization being offset by 12% volume declines in the quarter. Market contractions and the negative economic outlook has and will continue to put pressure across fulfillment in industrial end markets. As for Protective automation sales in the quarter, which account for approximately 9% of the segment sales, they were up mid-single digits, fueled by Auto Box placements. Despite end market weakness in the quarter, Protective adjusted EBITDA of $109 million increased 12% in constant dollars in Q3, with margins at 19.2%, up 230 basis points. Now let's turn to free cash flow on slide 16. September year-to-date free cash flow was $137 million, compared to $223 million in the same period a year ago. The $86 million decline was mainly driven by higher use of cash for inventory as compared to 2021, given raw material cost inflation and stock builds to mitigate potential future supply disruptions.
We are expecting inventory levels to normalize over time as we win by gaining share and growing our business globally. On slide 17, we outline our purpose-driven capital allocation strategy, focused on maximizing value for our shareholders. We maintain a strong balance sheet, while driving attractive returns on invested capital and supporting portfolio growth initiatives. We have highlighted fluids and liquids on the slide in the past as an attractive opportunity. We are now actioning with the Liquibox transaction. Let's turn to slide 18 to review our updated 2022 outlook and our initial thoughts for 2023. We now expect our 2022 net sales to be $5.65 billion to $5.75 billion, down from $5.85 billion to $6.05 billion previously.
At the midpoint, this assumes a 3% growth on a reported basis and an organic growth of 8%, driven by 13% growth from positive price realization, partially offset by 5% volume declines. Full year adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be $1.21 billion to $1.23 billion, down from $1.22 billion to $1.25 million, and assumes adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 21%, in line with prior estimates despite the top line pressures. Full year adjusted EPS of $4.10 at the midpoint assumes depreciation and amortization of approximately $245 million and adjusted effective tax rate of approximately 25.5%, net interest expense of approximately $165 million and 147 million shares outstanding. And lastly, we now expect full year free cash flow in the range of $460 million to $500 million, down from $510 million to $550 million.
This represents a cash conversion range between 77% and 82%. As we look ahead to 2023, with the anticipated addition of the Liquibox transaction, we expect to be in line with our SEE Operating Model despite headwinds we faced in several of the end markets we serve. So to summarize, we had a solid quarter from a profitability perspective, working through the challenges and opportunities in our control. This is a testament to the SEE team as we are focused on executing our growth strategy, driving productivity and generating world-class cash performance and executing our SEE Operating Model as we go.
With that, let me pass the call back to Ted for some closing remarks.