Olivier Leonetti
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Johnson Controls International
Thanks, George, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with the summary on Slide nine. Sales in the quarter were up 10% organically at the high end of our guidance of 9% to 10% growth, with price contributing nearly 9 points in line with what we originally anticipated. We saw a strong performance across our shorter-cycle global products portfolio, up 11%. Our longer-cycle field businesses also performed well, up 10% with solid growth in both service and install.
Segment EBITDA increased 9% with margins expanding 55 basis points to 16.5%, better leverage on higher volumes, favorable mix and the incremental benefits of our ongoing SG&A and COGS programs more than offset continued supply chain constraints and dilutive but improving price cost.
EPS of $0.99 was at the midpoint of our guidance and increased 13% year-over-year, benefiting from higher profitability as well as lower share count. During the quarter, we absorbed an additional $0. 03 of FX headwinds versus the prior guide. Full year free cash flow conversion was 67%. As a result of the disruptions of the supply chain over the last 2 years, we have built up our inventory to meet customer demand.
Turning to our EPS bridge on Slide 10. Overall, operations contributed $0.16 versus the prior year, including a $0.07 benefit from our COGS and SG&A productivity program helping to exceed our targeted savings for the year. In the quarter, FX was a $0.05 headwind. In addition, higher net financing charges and non-controlling interest impacts were offset by a lower share count.
Please turn to Slide 11. Orders for our field businesses increased 9% in aggregate. Install orders increased low double digits in the quarter with continued demand for applied HVAC and controls systems. We are also seeing continued strength in our service business with orders up 7%, driven by double-digit growth in both EMEA and APAC.
Bill backlog remains at record levels, growing 13% to $11.1 billion, a $1.2 billion increase versus the prior year while remaining flat quarter-over-quarter. Lastly, our Global Products third-party backlog grew more than 25% to $2.3 billion and continues to show strength.
Let's discuss our segment results in more details on Slides 12 and 13. Sales in North America were up 9% organically with broad-based growth across the portfolio. Our installed business grew low double digits with increased retrofit and upgrade projects and new construction growth. Overall, HVAC and controls grew low double digits and Fire & Security increased high single digits.
Orders were up 13%, with strong growth of more than 50% in our sustainability infrastructure business as our decarbonization solutions continue to resonate with our customers. Applied HVAC orders grew nearly 20% with another solid quarter for equipment orders, up over 30%. Fire & Security orders declined low single digits. Total backlog ended the quarter at $7.5 billion, up 18% year-over-year.
Segment margins in the quarter were 14.7%, a sequential improvement of 400 basis points, driven by increased volume leverage and the execution of projects with an improved booked margin profile. A direct result of the pricing discipline implemented earlier in the year. In the quarter, North America continued to be impacted by supply chain disruptions. Overall, supply chain was a $50 million headwind contributing to a 50 basis points decrease in the quarter year-over-year.
Sales in EMEA were up 9% organically with continued strength in Fire & Security business, which grew at a low double-digit rate. In Q4, while industrial refrigeration, HVAC and controls grew high single digits and mid-single digits, respectively. By geography, revenue growth was broad-based, with strength in Europe, partially offset by low single-digit decline in both Latin America and the Middle East.
Orders were up 3%, led by high single-digit growth in our Fire & Security platform. Backlog was up 7% to $2 billion. Segment EBITA margin declined 160 basis points to 9.4% as a result of unfavorable region and project mix, along with continued FX headwinds, which offset favorable volume leverage and the benefit of cost savings during the quarter.
Sales in Asia Pacific increased 12%, driven by high-teens growth in our HVAC and controls platform. Service performed well in the quarter, growing low double digits in aggregate, benefiting from our shorter-term transactional business in China. Overall, China grew 16%. Orders increased 3%, driven by low double-digit growth in services. Install orders remained flat year-over-year, backlog of $1.6 billion declined 2% year-over-year.
Segment EBITA margins declined 140 basis points to 14%, driven by FX headwinds, lower volumes and unfavorable mix due to higher HVAC shipments, offsetting positive price/cost and the benefit of cost savings. Sales in our shorter-cycle global products business increased 11% in Q4, benefiting from strong price realization of 12%. Commercial HVAC log sales were up mid-teens in aggregate, with strength in light commercial driven by 25% growth in North America and EMEA, respectively. Applied HVAC sales were up 9% with continued chiller demand within our data center end markets.
Outside of North America, our global residential HVAC sales were up 8% in the aggregate. North America resi HVAC was up mid-single digits, benefiting from both higher growth in our equipment and parts business and strong price realization. Our HVAC business grew low double digits, led by strong double-digit growth in Europe, driven by continued demand for our Hitachi residential heat pumps.
APAC resi HVAC sales grew high single digits, led by strong growth in Japan. Fire & Security products grew low double digits in aggregate, led by our access control and video solutions business and strong demand in North America and EMEA for our fire detection products. EBITA margin expanded 300 basis points to 21.9%, driven by the benefit of our productivity actions, higher volume leverage and favorable mix.
Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow on Slide 14. We ended Q4 with $2 billion in available cash and net debt at 1.9 times, which is lower than our target range of 2 to 2.5 times. As previously mentioned, free cash flow was impacted by temporarily building up inventory to meet customer demand.
In Q4, capex spend declined 29%. However, for the year, it increased 7% as we continued to make selective investments to improve efficiency and expand capabilities. Before we get into next year's guidance, I wanted to provide some commentary on the special item recorded in the quarter.
We recorded a $255 million charge to increase our environmental remediation and related reserves primarily related to our facility in Marinette, Wisconsin, where contamination exists for the use of fire fighting phone containing PFAS compounds. Over the last three years, our team has made significant progress in our investigation and remediation activities, including completing construction of a groundwater extraction and treatment system.
As a result of that work, we were able to perform a refreshed analysis based on currently available information known to us to date. This resulted in a reasonable estimate of the cost associated with the long-term remediation actions we expect to perform over an estimated period of up to 20 years.
Now let's discuss our fiscal year '23 guidance on Slide 15. Currently, we are seeing continued strength in demand adding into the first quarter of fiscal year 2023. Our backlog, which is at historical levels, continue to build along with our continued momentum across end markets. Orders remained strong, ending into Q1 with low double-digit organic growth expected as our value proposition continues to resonate with our customers.
We anticipate low double-digit organic revenue growth with price contributing 10%. Segment EBITA margin is expected to expand 120 to 130 basis points and adjusted EPS is expected in the range of $0.65 to $0.67, which represents year-over-year growth of 20% to 24%. On a full year basis, we are taking a prudent approach and providing a wide range to reflect the macroeconomic uncertainty that could potentially impact the balance of the fiscal year.
Our full year adjusted EPS guidance range of $3.20 to $3.60 represent a 7% to 20% growth rate, respectively. The top quartile of our range signifies our base case scenario. This accounts for normalized GDP growth, continued growth, vector acceleration and conversion of our existing backlog. The low end of this range, $320 provide a bookend reflecting a potential downside scenario. This scenario accounts for potential degradation of global GDP, which we believe will be offset by our resilient services and commercial market presence along with additional cost mitigation actions.
On the top line, we anticipate high single-digit to low double-digit organic growth with price representing about 10% as our offering continues to resonate with our customers. We anticipate segment EBITA margin expansion of 80 to 120 basis points as we continue to execute our higher booked margin backlog throughout the fiscal year.
Full year cash flow is expected to be between 80% and 90%. Operationally, we continue to improve our working capital management and expect further improvements from the gradual reduction of inventories as supply chain normalizes. As we close our fiscal year, we look forward to accelerating our strategic initiatives. We have aligned our business to minimize potential headwinds to enhance operational improvements, improved cost structure and productivity enhancements.
We are optimistic given the strong fundamentals across our businesses. The resiliency of our products and services continue to resonate with our customers as our order velocity and backlog remains strong. Adding into fiscal year 2023, we look to continue our growth momentum and invest in advancing our digital service offering while capitalizing on secular trends.
With that, operator, please open up the lines for questions.
