Turning to Slide 9. Net sales for the quarter were $304.7 million, a 15.9% increase compared to the prior-year period, or 13.9% on an organic basis. Approximately 65% of the year-over-year growth was attributed to pricing, while the remaining 35% was driven by volume. We ended the quarter with approximately $214 million of backlog, a reduction of $41 million from the end of the second quarter. Continued parts availability and a relatively stable supply chain environment allowed us to increase our production. This helped us service outstanding backlog and deliver customer orders. Net sales growth of $41.8 million in the quarter was primarily due to this reduction in backlog. As a quick reminder, Tennant groups its sales into three regions. The Americas include all of North America and Latin America.
EMEA covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa. And Asia Pacific includes Australia, China, Japan and other Asian markets. Each of our regions achieved year-over-year net sales growth. Net sales in the Americas grew substantially, 21.4% to $211.2 million, or 20.8% on an organic basis, while FX had a favorable impact of approximately 0.6%. This significant year-over-year growth in our largest region was well above expectations. It was driven by an approximately equal mix of price realization and volume increases, led by strong equipment sales in North America. Net sales in EMEA in the third quarter increased 4.3% over the prior year to $72 million. A favorable FX impact of approximately 7.1% was partly offset by an organic sales decline of 2.8%.
The organic sales decline was driven by volume declines in both equipment and parts and consumables, partly offset by price realization in all product categories. EMEA volumes were impacted by weaker-than-expected market conditions. Net sales in the Asia Pacific region increased by 8% over the prior year to $21.5 million, or 11.8% on an organic basis. This was driven primarily by price realization in Australia and volume growth in China. However, it was partly offset by a net unfavorable impact from foreign currency exchange of approximately 3.8%. We also group our sales into the following categories: equipment, parts and consumables, and service and other. We experienced growth in all categories in the third quarter of 2023 as compared to the prior-year period, most notably in equipment sales, which grew 23.2% year-over-year, well above our expectations.
Turning to adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 was $45.9 million, an increase of $12.1 million versus the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 15.1%, an improvement of 220 basis points versus the prior year. Our sales growth, driven by both volume and price, along with expanded gross margins, were the most significant drivers of adjusted EBITDA growth. Gross profit of $132 million was $31.3 million higher than the third quarter of last year. Gross margin of 43.3% in the third quarter of 2023 improved 500 basis points compared to the prior year. We have successfully returned to pre-pandemic gross margin rates, based on strong price realization, which offset the multi-year impact of inflation. S&A expense of $88.2 million increased $16.8 million compared to the prior-year quarter due to higher variable costs associated with increased operating performance and incremental spending on strategic investments.
We anticipate S&A expense as a percentage of sales on a full year basis will be comparable to the prior year. Turning now to capital deployment. Net cash provided by operating activities was approximately $54 million in the third quarter compared to net cash used in operating activities of approximately [$15 million] (ph) in the year-ago period. The increase was the result of improved operating performance, coupled with a significant reduction in strategic inventory spend. Capital expenditures of approximately $4 million were in line with our expectations and are on pace to meet our full year guidance. In alignment with our capital allocation priorities, we returned capital to our shareholders with dividend payments of $5 million and repurchased approximately 22,000 shares of our common stock for $1.7 million.
We also announced a 5.7% increase in dividend to $0.28 per share, marking the 52nd consecutive year the company has increased its annual cash dividend payout. Tennant’s liquidity remained strong with a balance of $97 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the third quarter and $316.9 million of unused borrowing capacity on the company’s revolving credit facility. At the midpoint of our full year guidance range, our net leverage was approximately 0.6 times adjusted EBITDA, lower than our stated goal of 1.5 times to 2.5 times. We have remained focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet. Given our robust cash flow generation and in the current interest rate environment, we have directed cash to reduce debt by $56.2 million in the third quarter.
Moving to guidance. Our strong performance in 2023 has been above our expectations. It is a direct result of our ability to effectively manage the global supply chain crisis and emerge stronger than ever. As Dave mentioned, we navigated a global pandemic and supply chain disruptions, while still delivering on our enterprise strategy a year ahead of schedule. The changes we have made over the past three years demonstrate that our goal of mid-single digits and above-market growth rates is sustainable. We are pleased with our third quarter results. And based on the continuing trends, we are increasing our full-year 2023 guidance. Our year-to-date results have benefited greatly from a significant increase in the availability of parts, and we believe we will continue to see overall improvement in our supply chain.
The improvement in parts availability allowed us to increase our production to fulfill open orders and meaningfully reduce backlog. Given this trend, we expect fourth quarter net sales to be between $298 million and $318 million and adjusted EBITDA to be between $39 million and $49 million. Implied in our guidance is our expectation that we will be able to reduce backlog below $200 million and will return to more normalized levels of backlog by the end of 2024 or early 2025. Overall, demand has been resilient. We are monitoring global order rates very closely, especially as we see some market softening in EMEA. Further, we anticipate continued strong price realizations. However, gross margins may see some variability in the fourth quarter as our revenue mix will see some seasonal geographical changes.
