Gregory S. Lovins
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Avery Dennison
Thanks, and hello, everybody. As Mitch said, we delivered another strong quarter, with adjusted earnings per share of $2.46, up 15% over prior year and up 26% excluding currency translation. Sales were up 19% ex currency and 16% on an organic basis, driven by higher prices. Adjusted EBITDA was up 13% and 22% excluding the impact of currency. Despite the impact of inflation, we delivered a strong adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.6%, up 20 basis points compared to prior year.
Turning to cash generation and allocation, year-to-date, we've generated nearly $425 million of free cash flow, with $140 million in the third quarter, down compared to prior year due to currency, higher working capital, which we deem largely as temporary, and increased capital spending. The higher level of capital spending is in line with our expectations as we continue to invest to support our long-term growth strategy, particularly in Intelligent Labels.
Our balance sheet remains strong, with a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio at quarter end of 2.1. We have ample capacity to continue executing our disciplined capital allocation strategy to invest in organic growth and acquisitions, while continuing to return cash to shareholders. In the first nine months of the year, we returned $497 million to shareholders through a combination of share repurchases and dividends, up from $290 million for the same period last year.
Now turning to segment results. Label and Graphic Materials sales were up 20% on an organic basis, driven almost entirely by higher prices. Label and Packaging Materials sales were up more than 20% on an organic basis, with strong growth in both the high-value product categories and the base business. Graphics and Reflective sales were up mid- to high-single digits on an organic basis. Looking at the segment's organic sales growth in the quarter by region, North America sales were up mid-teens due to pricing on lower volume as the region continued to be hampered by material availability constraints, as Mitch mentioned earlier. Western Europe sales were up approximately 40%, driven by strong volume growth and a significant impact from pricing as this region has seen the highest amount of inflation across this cycle. Emerging markets overall were up high teens. The Asia Pacific region was up mid- to high-single digits, with approximately 40% growth in India, while China and ASEAN were roughly flat. And Latin America grew more than 25%.
LGM's profitability remained strong in the quarter, with adjusted EBITDA dollars up 10% and up 19% ex currency, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.6%. Pricing actions continue to be implemented to offset inflation, and we anticipate inflation will be more than 20% for the year, with a low- to mid-single digit increase expected sequentially in Q4, primarily driven by paper and energy. We continue to address the cost increases through a combination of product reengineering and pricing actions.
Shifting now to Retail Branding and Information Solutions. RBIS sales were up 22% ex currency and 7% on an organic basis, as growth was strong in the high-value categories, with continued strength in Intelligent Labels and external embellishments, while the base business was down slightly, driven by a decline in the value channel. Profitability remained strong for this segment, with adjusted EBITDA dollars up 19% and up 27% ex currency and adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.9%. The positive benefit from higher organic volume and acquisitions more than offset growth investments and higher employee-related costs.
Turning to the Industrial and Healthcare Materials segment. Sales increased 5% on an organic basis, driven by higher prices. Healthcare sales were up mid-teens and industrial categories were up mid- to high-single digits, partially offset by a mid-teens decline in retail. Adjusted EBITDA dollars were up 4% and 8% ex currency, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.3% was up 90 basis points compared to prior year and up 60 basis points sequentially.
Now shifting to our outlook for the year. We have narrowed our guidance for adjusted earnings per share to be between $9.70 and $9.85. At the midpoint, our guidance reflects a roughly $0.10 incremental headwind from currency and an operational outlook similar to last quarter. As Mitch mentioned, this outlook reflects 10% earnings per share growth versus prior year and 18% growth excluding currency translation. We now anticipate roughly 16% ex-currency sales growth for the full year, 0.5 point below our previous expectation due to a slightly lower volume outlook.
As I mentioned, the anticipated impact from currency translation has increased and is now a roughly $77 million headwind for the full year based on current rates. Given the dollar has continued to strengthen throughout the year, assuming the rates remain where they currently are, we'll have an additional headwind of roughly $0.50 in 2023.
We continue to anticipate investing up to $350 million on fixed capital and IT projects and roughly $35 million in operating expense, adding capabilities and new capacity particularly in key strategic platforms such as Intelligent Labels, which is poised to grow more than 20% annually in the coming years.
Lastly, we now anticipate a roughly $0.05 GAAP to non-GAAP difference for the year, down $0.05 from our outlook last quarter, reflecting a benefit from a gain on one of our strategic venture investments.
In summary, we delivered another strong quarter in a challenging environment. We remain confident that the consistent execution of our strategies will enable us to meet our long-term goals for superior value creation through a balance of profitable growth and capital discipline.
We'll now open up the call for your questions.