Consolidated net loss was $5.4 million compared to a net loss of $2.5 million in the prior year period. The higher net loss was driven primarily by an increase in interest expense due to higher interest rates. Finally, consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $21 million compared to $21.5 million in the prior year third quarter. Shifting to our segment results for Q3. Branded CPG product revenues were $103.3 million for the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of $2.1 million or 2% compared to $105.4 million for the same period in the prior year. On a constant currency basis, segment product revenues were down 2.9% compared to prior year as 4.7% growth from pricing actions was more than offset by a 7.6% decline due to lower volumes. As Rajnish noted, excluding the planned decreases in Wholesome bulk sugar sales, segment constant currency revenue was essentially flat.
Operating income for the Branded CPG segment was $7.2 million in the third quarter of 2023, compared to operating income of $5.5 million for the same period in the prior year. The increase in operating income was primarily due to a decline in costs associated with supply chain reinvention, a reduction of $2.4 million compared to third quarter of 2022, and lower sugar import tariffs partially offset by higher bonus expenses and an impairment of a right-to-use asset of $0.4 million related to a leased facility, Decatur, Alabama that is now vacant following our co-packer optimization. Flavors & Ingredients segment product revenues increased 4.2% to $31.2 million for the third quarter of 2023 compared to $29.9 million for the same period in the prior year.
On a constant currency basis, segment product revenues increased 3.6%. Operating income for the F&I segment was $8.4 million in the third quarter of 2023 compared to operating income of $7.3 million for the same period in the prior year. Operating expenses for corporate for the third quarter of 2023 were $9 million compared to $6 million in the prior year period. The increase was primarily due to higher bonus expense, costs associated by strategic review and other professional fees. Now I’ll briefly cover our September year-to-date results. For the nine-month period ended September 30, 2023, consolidated product revenues were $399.7 million, essentially flat on a reported basis as compared to the nine-months ended September 30, 2022. On a constant currency basis, product revenues increased 0.4% compared to prior year period.
Consolidated operating income was $12.7 million compared to $21.6 million in the prior year period. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA decreased 5.4% to $55.8 million. Now, moving to cash flow and the balance sheet. Cash provided by operating activities for the nine-months ended September 30, 2023, was $10.6 million compared to cash used in operating activities of $17.3 million in the same period last year, represent an improvement of over $27 million, despite incurring $12.2 million of higher interest expense over the same period due to higher interest rates. Capital expenditures for nine-months ended September 30, 2023, were $4.1 million. Free cash flow was approximately $6.5 million, and we expect this to grow further and exceed $10 million in full year 2023.
When adjusting for our cash add-backs, which I would hope have decreased this year. The year-to-date adjusted free cash flow was $19.9 million. We expect to build upon this further in the fourth quarter as well. The strong improvement in our cash flow is a direct result of the hard work you heard Rajnish and Jeff talk about to stabilize our core. It has shown up in lower net working capital, expanded gross margins, declining costs associated with our supply chain reinvention project and more favorable payment terms of our vendors. Taken together, we feel very good about the efforts we have made to accelerate our cash generation. And I would like to emphasize that our supply chain reinvention costs will continue to decelerate through year-end and into 2024, which gives me confidence that the adjusted free cash flow that we generate this year would be a good proxy of our reported free cash flow in 2024.
We expect that this improvement in free cash flow will help us reduce leverage at an increasing pace and be a key element in our ability to reignite our growth strategy. Additionally, we’re making continuous efforts to further reduce the inventory sustainably and generate incremental cash flow. As of September 30, 2023, we had cash and cash equivalents of $24.2 million and $424.5 million of long-term debt, net of unamortized debt issuance costs. Our long-term debt decreased year-end 2022 by $8.8 million as a result of revolver repayments of $6 million and mandatory repayments of term loan of $2.8 million. At September 30, 2023, there was $70 million drawn on our $125 million revolving credit facility. We have a comfortable level of liquidity to navigate through this challenging microenvironment.
I also would like to highlight our inventory position of $217.3 million. Yet, a significant portion is composed of raw materials in readily tradable commodities such as sugar and licorice. Reducing leverage continues to be a focal point for us, and we aim to accomplish this through organic means, led by the improvement in our operating cash flow. Now shifting to our outlook, which we are updating today. As a reminder, our outlook is presented on a reported basis, which includes the impact of foreign currency translation. As a result of our year-to-date performance in 2023, we now expect consolidated product revenues to be between $540 million to $550 million. Given the milestones achieved in regards to supply chain efficiency, we now expect consolidated adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $77 million to $79 million or $1 million above the guidance range we provided previously.
Our top priority is cash flow generation and the results of the past four quarters is a reflection of that focus with an expectation that we will generate additional gains in 2023 and extend those in 2024. We also expect some modest capital expenditure savings of about $1 million versus prior plan, which puts our revised budget at approximately $8 million for the full year 2023. Finally, with respect to our supply chain reinvention, we expect cost to further decline in the coming quarters as we complete our current projects. Including known and forecasted events, we anticipate another $3 million for the remainder of the year or a decline of around $6.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year. Before we open the call to your questions, I want to take a moment and address the status of our strategic review.
The Board formed a special committee to review and evaluate the non-binding proposal received from Sababa Holdings as well as other strategic alternatives that may be available to the company. That review is ongoing, and company and the special committee do not intend to comment further until it’s complete or until they give further disclosures, otherwise appropriate. Marching this communication shall constitute a solicitation to buy or an offer to sell shares to the company’s common stock. There can be no assurance that any definite offer would be made, that any agreement will be executed or that this or any other transaction will be approved or consolidated. Those processes remain active with a goal of maximizing value for all shareholders.
When appropriate, we will update you on any developments. That concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, please open the call for questions. Thank you.
Operator: Absolutely. At this time, we will open the floor for questions. [Operator Instructions] We will go first to Scott Mushkin with R5 [technical difficulty]
Scott Mushkin: Turning to the Branded side of the business. Obviously, there’s been a lot of press around weight loss drugs, a lot of press around sugar substitutes. How are you thinking about that business in regards to some of these issues? And how do you think about as we kind of start to try to pay some debt down growing that side of the business?
Rajnish Ohri: Yeah. I guess, I’ll take this question. This is Rajnish. I mean, we’ve seen – while we’re seeing some kind of de-growth in the category on the non-nutritive side of the business, I think we see tremendous opportunity on the nutritive side of the business. And most of our brands where it’s a brand in North America or in the global scenario, where we have brands like Pure Via, Whole Earth, et cetera, they’re all well positioned to kind of ride on this wave of growth of the nutritive side of the business. And also, we have a plan where is all the allied categories, which are aligned to the non-sugar product categories, there is a plan to kind of grow these businesses and launch in the coming quarters as we go forward.
Irwin Simon: And Scott, let me just add to that. I think these are complementary to all these weight loss drugs. As again, as consumers use these weight loss drugs, they’re looking for products that are much lower in sugar, much lower in calories and nutritionals. And I think, if anything, some of the research in that where we’ll see is, they’re drinking more of the diet cokes, drinking more products that are sugar-free. So I think there is absolutely more opportunities for us, because we’re having no calories or very low calories in the sugar-free products that we have.
