Our overall packaging volumes increased by 5% in the first fiscal quarter, including e-commerce volume growth of 23% on a per-day basis.
North American corrugated box shipments increased more than 11% per day in December and over 8% for the quarter.
Consumer shipments of packaging were also very strong, up 2.4% year over year.
We successfully started up our 710,000-ton paper machine at Florence that has replaced three older obsolete paper machines.
We generated $562 million of adjusted free cash flow in the quarter.
We used the vast majority of this cash flow to reduce our net funded debt by $489 million.
Our net leverage ratio declined sequentially from 3.03 times to 2.86 times.
We have increasing line of sight toward returning to our targeted leverage ratio of 2.25 to 2.5 times.
We recognized each one of our teammates in the quarter with a one-time payment that accumulated to a total of $22 million.
Sales of $4.4 billion, adjusted segment EBITDA of $670 million, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.61 per share in the quarter were all in line with the prior-year quarter.
Packaging volumes measured in tons were 5% higher compared to the prior year.
Offsetting this were declines in shipments of export containerboard, especially SBS and pulp, that totaled 470,000 tons.
This was a decline of approximately 180,000 tons or 27% lower than last year.
73% of our sales were packaging sales, an increase of 5% or approximately 100,000 tons compared to last year.
Shipments of paper declined by 10% or 180,000 tons compared to last year.
This included a reduction of 125,000 tons in shipments of export containerboard.
The pricing environment has improved and record a RISI published pricing increases across several of our major grades, including a $50 per ton North American containerboard price increase in November and a $40 per ton unbleached kraft price increase in December.
We placed more than 100 machinery solutions in the quarter, bringing our total machinery replacements to more than 4,150.
By replacing plastic with fully recyclable fiber-based packaging, Kraft Heinz will remove over 500 tons of plastic from supermarket shelves and reduce their CO2 footprint by 18%.
Corrugated Packaging segment delivered adjusted EBITDA of $458 million in the first quarter.
Corrugated box demand was strong across most end markets, highlighted by e-commerce year-over-year growth of 23%, as well as strength in beverage, industrial, and distribution through our Victory Packaging business.
Our export shipments fell by 125,000 tons compared to the prior year, and our integration rate increased to 80% in the quarter.
Offsetting this favorable business mix was the continued flow-through of the total of $40 per ton of containerboard index price declines that occurred in late 2019 and early 2020, as well as the $36 per ton increase in recycled fiber cost as compared to last year.
We've been implementing the $50 per ton containerboard index price increase that PPW published in November.
We completed the KapStone acquisition just over two years ago and have achieved our target of $200 million in annual run-rate synergies.
In Brazil, mill outage reduced total mill production by approximately 48,000 tons.
The Consumer Packaging segment's adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter was $234 million, so a $50 million increase from the prior year.
Adjusted segment EBITDA margins increased by 270 basis points to 14.7% compared to the prior year.
Strong demand across our core food, beverage, and healthcare packaging end markets drove 2.4% higher converting shipments and $18 million higher EBITDA by shifting shipments away from lower-margin SBS and pulp markets.
Cost reductions and efficiency improvements contributed $40 million of productivity and operational improvements in the quarter.
We took 39,000 tons of economic downtime primarily in the first two months of the quarter.
This compares to 87,000 tons in our fiscal 2020 fourth quarter.
Over the past three quarters, the plan has contributed an additional $600 million in cash.
We are on track to achieve our goal of approximately $1 billion in additional cash available for debt reduction through the end of calendar year 2021.
Each of the past five years, we have generated more than $1 billion of adjusted free cash flow, and we have generated over $1.6 billion of adjusted free cash flow during the past 12 months.
With our ability to generate strong free cash flow, we have a road map to return our net leverage ratio to the targeted range of 2.25 to 2.5 times.
Over the past 12 months, we've reduced our adjusted net debt by more than $1.3 billion, and our net leverage ratio has improved from 3.01 times to 2.86 times.
Capital investment plans remain unchanged, and we still expect fiscal 2021 capital investments of $800 million to $900 million.
These strategic investments, combined with our KapStone synergy realization, will contribute approximately $125 million of EBITDA in fiscal year '21 and a similar amount in fiscal year '22.
Longer term, we expect normal capital investment levels will be between $900 million and $1 billion.
We have minimal near-term debt maturities and approximately $3.4 billion of liquidity, and a road map to return our leverage to our targeted range of 2.25 to 2.5 times.

Summary:
Sales of $4.4 billion, adjusted segment EBITDA of $670 million, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.61 per share in the quarter were all in line with the prior-year quarter.