We will get into more detail on each of these later in the call, but at a high level, include, progressing on divesting our noncore assets, including our beauty businesses and excess property holdings, enabling us to focus more time and resources on growing our core Tupperware brands and utilizing the recently authorized share repurchase facility to buy back 1 million shares during the third quarter, accelerating returns to shareholders.
As a result, our net sales of $377 million reflects our core Tupperware business, which declined 13%, primarily reflecting difficult comparisons from 2020, along with COVID-related market closures in 2021 and disruption in our US and Canada business due to the implementation of a new technology platform.
From an earnings standpoint, our adjusted earnings per share of $1.19 reflects our improved cost structure and new tax strategy that Sandra will describe later on the call.
Remember, we grew 21% in Q3 of 2020, yet our team executed well.
Now that we are six quarters into our third year turnaround plan, this midway point feels like an appropriate time to summarize the progress we have made over the last 18 months.
We did this by rightsizing our cost structure, delivering $192 million in savings in 2020.
Given that the legacy system was customized to the needs of our sales force for the last 20 years, the new technology solution caused disruption to our sales force in the past few months.
We're not even close to the same company that we were 18 months ago, and we're proud of the progress we've made.
We also intend to resume incentive trips and events that were put on hold in the past 18 months due to travel restrictions.
For the year-to-date period through September, business expansion represented 21% of total sales, which is an increase compared to where we were in Quarter 2.
Looking ahead, it is our goal to be a very different and even stronger company 18 months from now.
I will note that we did record an approximate $148 million noncash loss within discontinued operations, primarily driven by accumulated currency translations, which is standard GAAP accounting practice.
Net sales of $377 million in the quarter represents a decrease of 13% compared to last year.
In the quarter, total business expansion or nondirect selling business, which includes B2B, importers, EU markets, and other business expansion efforts represented 24% of total sales.
For the year-to-date period, total business expansion was 21% of total sales, up 100 basis points compared to the same year-to-date period through June.
B2B partnership sales in the quarter were $16 million or 4% of total sales.
Historically, our annual B2B sales have been between $30 million to $35 million.
And for this fiscal year, our goal is to reach $50 million.
Year-to-date through September, we've already achieved $35 million.
In Asia Pacific, sales decreased by 15%.
Other areas within the region were down 12% in the quarter, severely impacted by COVID, including by mandatory or strict lockdowns in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, which significantly impacted sales efforts, particularly as digital adoption is low in many of these regions.
In Europe, sales decreased by 20%.
Excluding B2B, sales decreased by 17%, mainly due to the timing of a B2B deal in Italy in the prior year that was not repeated this year.
In North America, sales decreased by 15% in the quarter, while US and Canada decreased by 20%.
Sales in Mexico decreased by 6%, driven by a significant sales force reduction stemming from service issues during the second quarter as well as lower-than-expected recruitment due to primarily COVID restrictions.
In South America, sales increased by 9%.
Gross profit in the third quarter was $248 million or 65.8% of net sales, a decrease of approximately 300 basis points compared to last year.
This was driven primarily by 240 basis points related to higher resin and manufacturing costs and 60 basis points related to country mix.
SG&A as a percentage of sales in the third quarter was 50.6% versus 48.5% last year, an increase of 210 basis points, primarily reflecting higher logistics costs and the investments we plan to make in the second half of the year.
Adjusted operating profit in the third quarter was $52 million, and as a percentage of sales, it was 14%.
Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $69 million versus $100 million in the prior year.
Trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA through September was $328 million.
Our operating tax rate was a negative 20.4% versus the same quarter in 2020 of 28.3%.
While nonrecurring in nature, this valuation allowance release is part of our strategic tax initiative that we were executing as part of our turnaround plan to help us effectively utilize our existing tax assets and achieve our overall tax rate of below 30%.
Adjusted earnings per share of $1.19 for Q3 versus $1.12 last year is better by $0.07 per share.
The favorable tax item just discussed contributed $0.52 of the variance and was offset by $0.41 due to lower volumes, higher resin costs and incremental investments, and $0.05 of higher inventory reserves.
We also bought back shares in the quarter, which Miguel mentioned, and I will discuss more in a minute, that contributed $0.01 per share.
Year to date, operating cash flow net of investing was a negative $7 million, compared to $108 million last year.
I should note that our full year free cash flow target may be less than $200 million and is largely dependent on the timing of cash proceeds from the sale of our noncore assets.
We ended the quarter with a healthy cash balance of $124 million, which compares to $134 million last year.
And we ended the quarter with a total debt balance of $678 million.
Our debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio for debt covenant purposes was $2.28 million versus 3.72% last year and well below the required covenant of 3.75%.
Of the $250 million that was recently authorized by our board, we repurchased 1 million shares of common stock during the third quarter at an acquisition cost of $25 million.
Although we focused on the continuing operations for the third quarter, net sales from discontinued operations were $45 million or 11% of total net sales and adjusted earnings per share, excluding the cumulative translation adjustments from discontinued operations was $0.03 or 3% of our total adjusted earnings per share.
For the year-to-date period through September, net sales from discontinued operations were $140 million or 10% of total net sales and adjusted earnings per share, excluding the CTA from discontinued operations was $0.11 or 4% of total adjusted earnings per share.

Summary:
From an earnings standpoint, our adjusted earnings per share of $1.19 reflects our improved cost structure and new tax strategy that Sandra will describe later on the call.
Net sales of $377 million in the quarter represents a decrease of 13% compared to last year.
Adjusted earnings per share of $1.19 for Q3 versus $1.12 last year is better by $0.07 per share.
Although we focused on the continuing operations for the third quarter, net sales from discontinued operations were $45 million or 11% of total net sales and adjusted earnings per share, excluding the cumulative translation adjustments from discontinued operations was $0.03 or 3% of our total adjusted earnings per share.