This is the first time we have positive earnings per share since fiscal year 2018. Now let’s turn to our adjusted results, which eliminates the noise in the reported results. On an adjusted basis, first quarter consolidated EBITDA was $7.5 million compared to $3.8 million in the prior year’s quarter. The $3.6 million improvement was driven by lower G&A and the wind down of last generating company-owned salons. Our adjusted G&A was $10.7 million for the first quarter, an improvement of $2.9 million from the prior year first quarter. The improvement relates primarily to lower headcount and lower professional fees year-over-year. Our G&A run rate is a metric we monitor very closely. Q1 is typically our lowest G&A quarter due to the timing of costs.
Looking forward, we believe our annual run rate G&A will be in the range of $47 million to $50 million. Our core Franchise Business achieved adjusted EBITDA of $8 million in the quarter, a $3 million improvement compared to $5 million in the prior year quarter. On an adjusted EBITDA basis, our company-owned segment lost just under a $0.5 million for the quarter, and improved $700,000 from the same quarter last year. The improvement is driven by having fewer loss-generating company-owned salons in the current period, as we are closing salons either at lease-end or negotiating a buyout when it makes economic sense to do so. Approximately two-thirds of our remaining company-owned salons will come to lease-end by February of next year. So our company-owned salon segment will have significantly less impact in the second half of our fiscal year 2024.
Turning to liquidity, as of September 30, we had $42.4 million of liquidity, including $33.1 million of available revolver capacity and $9.3 million of cash, amounts that continue to remain stable and relatively unchanged from our last fiscal quarter. At September 30 of 2023, our debt outstanding excluding deferred financing fees was $186.1 million. Additionally, we have $9.8 million of letters of credit outstanding. We are in compliance with our debt covenants currently and we do not expect to violate any of the covenants during the term of our credit facility. Additionally, we believe we have adequate liquidity to operate the business. As Matt mentioned, we are announcing today that we are evaluating strategic alternatives with the intent of strengthening our balance sheet, and positioning Regis for growth.
As a reminder, due to accounting standards, our balance sheet shows approximately $350 million of operating lease liabilities related to liabilities associated with subleasing our salons to our franchisees over the entire life of their respective leases. These liabilities are serviced by our franchisees and should not be factored in to Regis’s debt position, so long as the franchisees continue to pay their obligations as they have been. Regis is solely responsible for lease liabilities for our corporate office space and the 66 remaining company-owned salons, which amounts to $10.7 million over the life of all the leases. In the first three months of the year, we use $2.8 million of cash from operations, which is a $2.2 million improvement from the prior year.
The improvement is due to our lower cost structure partially offset by increased interest expense of approximately $1.6 million due primarily to higher variable interest rates on our bank debt. Operating cash used in the quarter was driven by close to $5 million of cash interest expense and close to $3 million related to several prepaid items that occur in the first quarter, such as insurance premiums and licenses. In addition to legacy insurance claims and rental payments on dark salons, as well as working capital used related to investing in the marketing of our brands and timing of cash received from add-on collections. The remaining use is driven by the timing of incentive compensation payments made during the first quarter that represents total incentive compensation for fiscal year 2023.
Operating cash use in Q1 is generally the highest for us due to the compensation payouts and prepaid expenses. However, we do continue to deal with longer tail items like rental payments on dark salons, and workers compensation related to when we were primarily a company-owned business. While these amounts are getting smaller and smaller, there continues to be a tail that will wind down over the coming years. We typically have our highest cash use quarter in the first quarter due to the prepaid expenses and incentive compensation payments. Future cash use may be impacted by variability and interest rates that we cannot control. Management remains committed to continued cash management and returning to cash generation. This concludes my prepared remarks.
