Turning to cash flow, GAAP cash from operating activities in the quarter was $94 million, and free cash flow was $78 million. Both figures were lower on a year-over-year basis, due primarily to a large working capital benefit last year. During the quarter, we paid $9 million in dividends and $14 million to reduce debt. As Jason mentioned, we remain focused on a disciplined and balanced capital allocation strategy. I’ll conclude my remarks with a perspective on 2024. We expect revenue growth to range from flat to a low-single digit decline and EBIT margins do remain relatively flat on a year-over-year basis. We expect incremental benefit in 2024 from our company-wide cost reduction program as savings from the action stake and in 2023 annualize, and we further execute on the plan.
We expect restoration of variable compensation and wage inflation to partially offset gains. Within SendTech, we expect revenue and EBIT to decline due to the dynamics I previously explained around our meter base, the timing of our product lifecycle, and shipping growth. Following a strong year in 2023 we expect Presort performance to be relatively flat to slightly up as the team continues its strong execution. Within Global Ecommerce, we expect revenue and EBIT to improve as we continue to take actions to optimize performance and to realize the value of this segment. Finally, in 2024, we expect similar levels of capital expenditures as in 2023, which were at a lower level than 2022. And interest expense to remain around the elevated rate incurred in fourth quarter 2023.
To close, the fourth quarter was a solid quarter. And it testament to our team’s dedication and hard work, Global Ecommerce grew domestic partial volume and improved its bottom line in a soft market. SendTech and Presort both delivered meaningful margin expansion through focus on operational excellence and simplification. With that, let me pass the call back to Jason.
Jason Dies: Thanks, Ana. Before moving to Q&A, I’d like to formally welcome Bill Simon and Jill Sutton to our Board of Directors. You may have seen an announcement last night regarding changes to our Board. Bill and Jill brings significant experience in areas such as corporate governance, transformations and capital allocation. And I look forward to their insights and counsel as we continue to move Pitney Bowes forward. As part of that announcement, Mary Guilfoyle has also announced that she will not stand for reelection in May, but will stay on as Board Chair until then. I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Mary for her many contributions to the Board of Directors over the past six years, and her continued leadership as Board Chair.
She has been a steady hand during an important period of change for Pitney Bowes in overseeing governance, enhancements and strategic actions that we expect will put the company on stronger footing for years to come. I look forward to continuing to work with her over the next four months to build on the progress we’ve made. And with that, let’s open the line for Q&A.
Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We’ll go to Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.
Kartik Mehta: Good morning. I wanted to get a little bit more insight into the Global Ecommerce business. You’re making good progress there. And I’m wondering, as you move into 2024, is it a function now of trying to get revenue per piece to increase or is it because of the higher price competition, more about making sure you control costs, becoming more efficient and driving more volume?
Jason Dies: Hey, Kartik, thank you for the question. I mean look, as always with GEC, I’d say it’s multiple things. First off, we need to continue to drive the cost management that we’ve been pushing for a while now. I think you really started to see the cost management kick in over the last few months. I’ll call out in fourth quarter in particular, we saw an $8 million improvement in OpEx year-over-year. So that is going to continue and the team is focused on that. Second, as you’ve heard from us repeatedly, we need to continue to focus on driving volumes into the network, especially volumes that add margin in an important way to the network. We did a good job of that again, in fourth quarter. We’ve done a good job of that over the past couple of years.
Last year, we drove 24% increase in domestic parcel volume over the course of the year, 13% in fourth quarter, in what was a down peak for most in the industry. So that has to be a part of the equation again. And then to your point, we’re always focused on rate per piece and the price and margin that we’re getting in the market. And I would say in particular, we’ve probably shifted more to a focus on the margins that were yielding in the market over the past few months. And that will continue to be a focus for us going forward.
Kartik Mehta: Ana, just for 2024, well, what are your free cash flow expectations may be in comparison to what you did in 2023?
Ana Maria Chadwick: Yes, so we believe that our free cash flow, as you saw, we delivered that $20 million-some and we believe will be somewhat north of that for next year. Nothing significant, but somewhat north.
Kartik Mehta: And just one last question, Jason, just on equipment sales, obviously, you talked about a little bit of a transition happening. And that will have an impact in 2024. And I’m wondering — and I know it’s hard. But as you look at the business over the next couple years what’s your expectations for that would be if this is ’24 — ’24 is a little bit of an anomaly or if the trends continue?
