Dear shareholders, employees, and partners of Lassonde Industries, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. My name is Nathalie Lassonde, and I am Vice President of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Lassonde Industries. On behalf of myself and our Chairman of the Board, Mr. Pierre-Paul Lassonde, I welcome you to our annual general meeting of shareholders. This year, we are once again holding a virtual meeting that is being held simultaneously in French and English. With me today is Ms. Caroline Lemoine, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Mr. Vince Timpano, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Éric Gemme, Chief Financial Officer of the corporation. Thank you for being here today and for your interest in our company.
In order to present the elements relating to the conduct of our meeting, I now give the floor to Ms. Caroline Lemoine to cover the two items on the agenda that are to be voted on. Thank you. In accordance with the regulations of the corporation, Mrs. Lassonde will act as chairman of the meeting, and I will act as secretary. Mr. Bertrand Genest and Ms. Jenny Konkam of TSX Trust Company act as scrutineers and will report on the number of shareholders attending the meeting, as well as the number of votes cast. As described in our executive proxy circular, if you are a registered shareholder or proxy holder, you may vote or ask questions during the meeting. To do so, you must have registered as such on the electronic platform with the control number included in the documentation relating to the meeting.
In accordance with the corporation's rules and regulations, voting on any resolution will be done through the virtual platform. The vote will be open for all resolutions at the same time in the section on the left of your screen. Shareholders who have already sent their proxy to TSX Trust have nothing to do unless they want to change their vote. Shareholders will be able to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait for the discussion of each resolution to finish before voting. The deputy returning officers shall take the votes of the shareholders or authorized representatives when the vote on the last resolution on the agenda is completed. For the question period, shareholders and authorized representatives registered as such will be able to intervene through the chat function on the electronic platform.
We invite you, if you can, to submit your questions in advance so that we can deal with them as effectively as possible during the meeting. At the end of the presentations, your questions and comments will be relayed to our assembly president, who will ask the appropriate person to answer them. We have also asked a shareholder to propose and support the resolutions that will have to be adopted at the meeting in order to promote the proper functioning of the meeting. The notice of the meeting and the accompanying documents, namely the management proxy circular, the proxy form, the consolidated financial statements, and the auditor's report were published on SEDAR and mailed to the shareholders of the company upon request. I have received the report of the deputy returning officers on the shareholders represented at the meeting.
As the required quorum is reached, the meeting shall be duly constituted. I shall include the contents of the report of the tellers in the minutes of the meeting. We will now proceed to the election of directors. I would ask Mr. Anthony Plourde, the shareholder of the corporation, to make a proposal with respect to the election of the nine candidates described in the executive proxy circular. Thank you, Madam Lemoine. I propose that Chantal Bélanger, Denis Boudreault, Paul Bouthillier, Luc Doyon, Nathalie Lassonde, Pierre-Paul Lassonde, Pierre Lessard, Nathalie Pilon, and Michel Simard be elected as directors of the corporation for the coming year until the appointment or election of their successors. Thank you, Mr. Plourde. I declare the appointments for the election of directors closed. I now invite shareholders to vote for each proposed director through electronic voting in the left-hand section of the screen.
The next item on the agenda is the appointment of the auditors of the corporation. I would ask again Mr. Plourde to make a suggestion on that. Thank you. I move that Deloitte be appointed as the auditor of the corporation until the next annual general meeting of shareholders and that their remuneration be determined by the directors. Shareholders are invited to vote via electronic voting in the section on the left of the screen. If you have not already done so, please complete your votes. The voting period is now over. In view of the powers of attorney filed and the votes compiled, I declare the proposed directors to this meeting duly elected and Deloitte duly appointed auditor of the company. A report describing the detailed results of the votes will be tabled on SEDAR after this meeting.
I will now turn the floor over to Nathalie Lassonde for her comments on the affairs of the corporation. Thank you, Caroline. In a few moments, Vince and Éric will review progress on our multi-year strategy, our operational priorities, and fiscal highlights for 2023, respectively. Before I do that, I'd like to say a few words. Lassonde Industries performed strongly in 2023. On the one hand, we had record sales of CAD 2.3 billion, but more importantly, our profitability improved significantly from the previous year. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest thanks to all our employees who have contributed to these excellent results. Lassonde Industries has nearly 3,000 employees in Canada and the United States in 18 plants. They are passionate people who innovate and invest energy, time, creativity, and commitment to create tasty, quality products.
It's also a 106-year tradition since my great-grandparents founded the company. With each generation, we have set new ambitious goals to firmly establish ourselves as a leader in the food processing sector. In order to demonstrate our great potential and provide a better understanding of our activities, we held our first Investor Day in Rougemont last September. This event, attended by approximately 30 members of the financial community, reflects our desire to engage more with the financial stakeholders. Investor Day also allowed Lassonde to reveal the quality and dynamism of its management team, which is the main driving force in the execution of our strategic plan. To support our strategy with concrete goals, we shared our goal of reaching CAD 3 billion in annual sales by the end of 2026. In addition, we aim to ensure that profitability growth prevails over sales growth.
These objectives will be achieved through a combination of internal growth and investment-led growth. Internal growth is essentially about building on our existing assets by increasing and optimizing their use. On the one hand, we aim to consolidate our position as a leader in the markets in which we currently operate. Internal growth also includes accelerating the penetration of market segments with higher growth potential. Growth from investments includes all initiatives to increase our physical footprint, either through the construction or expansion of existing facilities or through strategic investments, which could include acquisitions. Based on the progress made in 2023 and since early 2024, we remain on track to meet our fiscal targets. In conclusion, I am pleased to see the positive results from the implementation of our strategic plan.
They are an important step towards achieving our long-term growth ambitions and creating lasting value for our shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention, and I now give the floor to Vince Timpano for a review of our operations. Vince. Thank you, Nathalie. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to be here today to share our achievements, provide an update on the progress made in our strategic objectives and projects, and reinforce our ambitions and priorities for the future. Lassonde enjoyed a solid financial performance in 2023, ending the year with record sales and a strong improvement in the operating profitability.
Sales increased by 7.6% to attain CAD 2.3 billion, reflecting mainly adjustments in sales prices in Canada and the U.S., as well as a better sales mix for our private label businesses, partially offset by a decline in volume in the U.S. These factors, together with improved operational performance at several levels, were the main contributors to a 32% increase in adjusted EBITDA, with higher profitability noted for all divisions. We achieved this performance despite an inflationary environment due to rising raw material costs, which affected the economy, consumption of fruit juices and beverages in North America. In spite of this reality, we have increased our market share, which shows the strength of our portfolio and our position in the market.
Although we recorded a decrease in volume in 2023 compared to 2022, some of this was forecast as part of the US portfolio simplification, which was completed during the year. I will come back to this subject a little bit later.
Construire une portefeuille orientée vers la croissance renforce notre engagement pour devenir un acteur dans l'agroalimentaire et les breuvages diversifiés dans l'Amérique du Nord. Chaque division a un rôle à jouer qui est distinct en considérant qu'il y a différents niveaux de maturité qui font face aux dynamiques du marché. Notre deuxième pilier est de diriger la performance
We are focused on improving effectiveness and efficiency across all areas of the organization. This includes increasing investments on our manufacturing network with productivity and growth initiatives that I'll discuss shortly. On this note, our ESG roadmap continues to serve as a guide for important investment decisions. Finally, our third pillar is improving our capacity to act, which is about setting the right foundations to become a stronger company and providing the tools to achieve our goals. With the pillars in hand, let's first look at our Canadian beverage activities. Lassonde is Canada's number one producer of fruit juices and drinks, and I am pleased to report that our share has grown in 2023, driven by our diversified product portfolio, extensive market reach, and solid customer relationships. As anticipated, we continued to see a slight shift in consumer preferences toward private label products.
Still, within the branded category, our brands outperformed the market. In fact, not only is our Oasis brand the largest by volume in the category, it was voted the most trusted juice brand in Canada for a second consecutive year, according to a BrandSpark study, which speaks highly about the strength of our brand. While we have a very strong portfolio with leading regional and national brands, including SunRype, Allen's, Rougemont, Del Monte, and Kiju, Oasis serves as our flagship brand with broad presence across Canada, and this recognition is a testament to its well-established reputation. As we look ahead, our goal is to further fortify our leadership position in the Canadian beverage sector through a relentless focus on innovation and ensuring we reinforce our core while continuing to pursue opportunities in growing and on-trend categories.
Channel expansion, as we believe there remains an opportunity for us to leverage our portfolio strength and further extend our presence in the away-from-home category. Brand marketing to ensure and grow consumers' awareness and affinity with our brands. Productivity initiatives to drive efficiency through better tools and processes, automation, and state-of-the-art equipment. One such initiative is the commissioning of another aseptic high-speed juice box line at Rougemont during the second half of 2024. This will allow us to progressively decommission older and smaller lines that have been in service for over 40 years, thereby improving efficiency. Let me circle back on innovation. In recent quarters, we have often referred to commodity price inflation for orange and apple concentrates. As our Canadian activities have a relatively important exposure to orange, we are affected by rapid commodity price variations. One way to mitigate the impact is through customer pricing adjustments.
We implemented the latest rounds in quarter four, 2023 and quarter one, 2024 on both branded and private label products. This said, we are very mindful of the impact pricing has on our customers' and consumers' purchasing behavior. To that end, we will continue to pursue opportunities to reduce cost and drive innovation as a means of offering value and more options for consumers. Through branded and private label products and our presence in multiple categories, we already provide consumers with an extensive offering. However, given the maturity of the categories in which we compete, further diversifying our portfolio to reduce commodity exposure is highly important. Accordingly, one of our paths to success will be through innovation. Moving on to U.S. activities. Our performance improved in 2023 as we reaped further benefits from our turnaround plan.
When we look at our operations, we realized important improvements from where we were in 2022, starting with our leadership and our people. Having the right talent in the right seats enabled us to reexamine how we operate. Another factor behind this improvement was our successful portfolio simplification initiative. By reducing the number of SKUs, harmonizing packaging formats, consolidating formulas, and rationalizing low-margin products, we freed up valuable capacity by diminishing costly downtime associated with line changeovers. New equipment, as well as from new decision-making tools and technology, also contributed to our performance improvement. In regard to equipment, we made an important investment at our New Jersey facility where a new filler, capper, and labeler improved yields and run speed while also reducing water consumption. As a result, we were able to enhance efficiency and reduce conversion costs.
As for tools and technology, 2023 saw the deployment of new systems to support transportation management and demand planning, as well as the application of new processes. These initiatives, most particularly the Transportation Management System, were important contributors to our U.S. profit improvement. We are currently in the process of implementing the system now in Canada. Going forward, another area of profitability improvement will come from our decision to bring more production in-house for our core business, starting with the commissioning of a new high-speed juice box line in Rougemont earlier this year. As you may know, a portion of our U.S. business is produced in Canada, and this new capacity will also enable us to better serve our customers and fuel future growth. We will seek to leverage the productivity, efficiency, and profitability improvements achieved thus far.
As we increasingly focus on building back U.S. volume, and in doing so, better absorb our costs, these gains will enable Lassonde to generate growth at a higher margin. Also reflecting on the sustainability and the future of our U.S. business, we are in the process of evaluating various investment scenarios to ensure the competitiveness of our manufacturing network. In addition to improving efficiency, our scenarios also consider the possibility of adding capacity and new capabilities to meet market opportunities over the longer term. The outcome could lead to an additional CapEx program. Another important growth factor stems from the addition of an aseptic single-serve line at our North Carolina facility. This important project covers our strategic objectives of building a growth-oriented portfolio while delivering a more sustainable product at lower cost.
At this moment, equipment has been mostly installed, and we are on track to commission the new line in the 3rd quarter. The U.S. single-serve bottle market continues to grow in both the branded and private label markets, and demand exceeds our current line capacity. While we already have several facilities producing these formats, this new line will allow us to expand our offerings. In terms of fortifying our core capabilities, we will have more capacity to expand our single-serve offering to retail in smaller multi-packs. We can also offer more products for away-from-home consumption in the convenience store channel, supporting our vision of expanding into more occasions. It will also foster innovation into adjacent categories such as functional beverages, namely sports drinks or isotonic beverages, as well as premium teas. Following a ramp-up phase, we expect full production to begin in early 2025.
This new line will play a key role in providing growth opportunities in new markets across both our branded and private label businesses. Let's turn to our specialty foods division. We continue to believe in the opportunities within the specialty food market. 2023 produced another year of sales and profit growth. This past year, we introduced several new products to capture growth in premium categories. For instance, we leveraged Canton, a great brand known to many in Quebec. While known for its presence in fondue, broths, and sauces, we saw that we could extend this esteemed brand into new categories such as premium glass jar soups. We feel very confident about the specialty foods business. This division represents an important platform as we build a growth-oriented portfolio.
In this regard, we continue to closely examine expansion opportunities, either by acquiring an established player or building new capacity.
I'll be back in a few minutes to discuss our perspectives. Éric. I'll start with the 2023 financial highlights. Then I'll continue with a brief overview of the first quarter 2024 results released last week. Note that most amounts have been rounded to make the presentation lighter. Note that I will include non-IFRS financial measures or ratios in my presentation, primarily to promote comparability across periods. Reconciliations to IFRS measures are provided as an appendix to the presentation that will be posted on our website. Lassonde Industries' results reflect, since November 14, the acquisition of a majority interest in Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits, a company listed on the TSXV and located in Ontario. Limiting itself to just a few weeks, Diamond's contribution had a small impact on our 2023 annual results.
As Vince mentioned, 2023 saw a significant improvement in our bottom line, both in terms of sales and profitability. We have also generated excellent cash flow, which has allowed us to significantly improve our financial position. Sales for fiscal year 2023 were CAD 2.3 billion, an increase of 7.6% over the previous year. Excluding Diamond and a favorable exchange rate effect, sales increased by 5.4%. This increase reflects sales price adjustments of over CAD 200 million, mainly from Canada but also from the U.S., more favorable composition of private label sales. These factors were mitigated by a fall in sales volumes, reflecting a decline in demand and the effect of optimizing our private label product portfolio in the U.S.
You can see on the screen the distribution of sales at a time by market segment, by geographical region of delivery, and by type of mark. These allocations were virtually unchanged from the previous year. Gross margin totaled CAD 588 million or gross profit margin of 25.4% compared to CAD 523 million or gross profit margin of 24.3% a year earlier. The main factors behind the increase in gross margin are the effect of sales price increases following the increase in input costs that has been evident since late 2021. An increase in conversion costs at a lower rate than sales, resulting in particular from an improvement in operational efficiency. Finally, the effect on profitability of a production shutdown at our New Jersey plant in late 2022.
This was partly offset by an increase in the cost of all inputs, including apple and orange concentrates. Sales and administration costs increased by CAD 10 million or 2.3%, which is well below the rate of increase in sales. The increase is due to a combined effect, an increase in performance-related compensation costs. Remember that these charges were 0 for 2022, given the below expectations performance, an increase in certain selling, marketing and administrative costs, as well as costs incurred in optimizing our activities, an increase in storage costs, and an adverse exchange effect on the conversion of selling and administration expenses of U.S. entities into Canadian dollars.
These increases were mitigated by a significant reduction in the cost of transporting products shipped to customers, resulting from a reduction in basic fares and fuel surcharges and savings associated with the use of new processes and the U.S. Transportation Management System, and a decline in sales volumes also in the United States, and by a reduction in the costs associated with the strategy and its deployment. As a result, 2023 operating income was CAD 135 million, or 5.8% of sales, compared to CAD 81 million or 3.8% of sales in 2022. Excluding items that affect comparability, adjusted operating income was CAD 145 million, up 48% from 2022.
Reflecting the above, adjusted EBITDA or the BAIIA for 2023 was CAD 207 million compared to CAD 157 million in 2022. Net income attributable to shareholders of the corporation reached CAD 88 million, or CAD 12.83 per share in 2023, compared to CAD 54 million, or CAD 7.85 per share in the previous year. Adjusted net income per share was CAD 13.18 in 2023, up 41% from 2022.
Significantly improved during the year. Inventory were reduced significantly, while increases in accounts receivable and accounts payable were relatively proportionate to our sales growth. As a result, and as anticipated, the ratios of days invested in our operating working capital progressively converged towards the end of its pre-COVID range throughout 2023. Our objective remains to manage working capital so that the ratio settles down within that historical range. Having said this, we do not exclude using our balance sheet to secure pricing or the availability of certain inputs if needed, as we did at the end of the first quarter. Turning to cash flows. Operating activities generated CAD 225 million in 2023 versus CAD 24 million in 2022. This significant improvement mainly reflects higher profitability and lower operating working capital requirements.
Financing activities used CAD 92 million in liquidity during 2023, compared to CAD 28 million generated last year. Note that repayments on our revolving credit facility and long-term debt totaled CAD 77 million, and dividend payment amounted to CAD 15 million. Investing activities reduced liquidity by CAD 115 million in 2023 compared to CAD 48 million in 2022, reflecting CapEx of CAD 106 million, which represent more than twice the amount invested last year in support of our multi-year strategy and a CAD 9 million disbursement to acquire the controlling interest in Diamond last November. Our solid operating cash flow, combined with better profitability, allowed Lassonde to significantly reduce its debt.
We concluded 2023 with a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 0.92 to 1 versus 1.57 to 1 at the end of 2022. In fact, if we remove the debt associated with our investment in Diamond and its negative EBITDA, the 2023 year-end ratio would have been 0.8 to 1. We remain well within our objective of maintaining this ratio below 3.25 to 1, providing us with the flexibility to finance our capital expenditures as well as our strategic acquisition opportunity that may arise.
Let's look at the results for the first quarter of 2024. Sales reached CAD 570 million, up 4.1% from 2023 sales. Apart from a contribution of CAD 8.2 million for Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits and a slight unfavorable currency variation, sales increased by 2.8%. This increase mainly reflects adjustments in sales prices in Canada, partially offset by decrease in sales volumes also in Canada. These price adjustments, together with a better sales mix and improved operational efficiency, resulted in an improvement in gross margin of 26.2% compared to 25% last year. Net income attributable to shareholders was CAD 24 million or CAD 3.49 per share, compared with CAD 17 million or CAD 2.51 per share a year earlier.
Excluding the elements that affect comparability, adjusted net income per share totaled CAD 3.68, up 48% from last year. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. I'll turn the microphone back to Vince for our perspective. Vince. Thank you, Éric. For fiscal year 2024 and beyond, we remain focused on implementing our growth strategy to accelerate sales, improve profitability, and create long-term value. Our priorities are rebuilding sales volume in the U.S. by building on progress done last year. Strengthening our leadership position in Canada through product innovation and service excellence. Marketing support for our brands, expansion of distribution channels, and further improvements in productivity. Continue to evaluate options to develop our product, offering specialized food brands to take advantage of the strong market demand.
In the short term, we will continue to closely monitor and manage the impact of inflation on orange juice and concentrates. While these prices have declined from their peak last October, they remain volatile and high by statistical standards. As mentioned above, we want to reduce our exposure to commodities, and our innovation efforts are aimed in particular at reducing this. Given our priorities and market dynamics, we anticipate that our 2024 revenue growth rate will be in the middle of the single-digit range, excluding currency movements. This rate of growth will be mainly due to price adjustments and volume increases in the second half of the year. We foresee a decrease in volume in the first half of 2024, followed by an improvement in the second half of the year due to the combination of the following factors.
The pace at which we will rebuild demand in the U.S. The volume available following the commissioning of the individual format production line in North Carolina. Introducing new products to the Canadian market to maintain our growth in certain categories and normalization of the demand. In conclusion, we are satisfied with our performance in 2023. The sustained focus on implementing our strategy is expected to lead to further progress in 2024 toward our long-term growth objectives. On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I sincerely thank all our employees for their work and dedication. They are an essential part of our success. I also want to thank our business partners, customers, and suppliers for their support. We also recognize the board of directors for its confidence in our ability to execute our strategic plan.
Finally, a special thank you to you, our shareholders, for your confidence. This concludes our formal presentation. We are now ready to answer your questions. Thank you. I see that we don't have any questions at this time. We will end the question period. I declare this meeting over. I invite Anthony Plourde, shareholder, to make a proposal to declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you, Madam Lassonde. I propose that the meeting be adjourned. Thank you, Mr. Plourde. I therefore declare the meeting adjourned, and we thank you for joining us today.