While our current operating environment could not be more different than what our founder George Tennant encountered in 1870, the Company has always maintained a tradition of innovation and resilience, demonstrated by our ability to adapt and stay relevant to our customers.
As Andy will speak to in a few moments, we are reinitiating our full year guidance for 2020 which not only reflects our revenue and profitability expectations, but also our commitment to investing in our business to support our long-term enterprise strategy.
Dan has broad enterprise leadership and deep functional expertise across all aspects of manufacturing operations, supply chain management, and enterprise transformation and he brings more than 25 years of Global Operations leadership experience to Tennant.
Overall, for the third quarter of 2020, Tennant reported net sales of $261.9 million, down 6.7% year-over-year.
Organic sales, which exclude the impact of currency effects declined 7.1%.
This represents the significant improvement in our sales trajectory when compared to the 27% decline we experienced in the second quarter.
For the third quarter, we reported net earnings of $11.7 million or $0.63 per share, down from $14.6 million or $0.79 per share in the year ago period.
Adjusted EPS, which excludes certain non-operational items and amortization, totaled $0.90 compared with $0.85 in the prior year.
Sales in the Americas declined 9.9% year-over-year and were down 8.8% organically.
Sales in EMEA declined 0.3% or down 4.5% organically in the quarter as a result of market weakness across the region.
Sales in the APAC region declined 0.8%, down 2.3% organically.
While equipment sales were down approximately 12% year-over-year for the quarter, aftermarket revenue was up 6% over the same period last year, reflecting our efforts in helping customers meet their rapidly evolving cleaning needs during the pandemic.
Adjusted gross margins during the third quarters of 2020 and 2019 were 40.2% and 40.8% respectively.
Turning to expenses, during the third quarter, our adjusted S&A expenses were 29.8% of net sales compared with 31.2% in the year ago period, mainly as a result of cost containment efforts and adjustments to management incentives.
Combining these results, our EBITDA in the third quarter of 2020 was $32.6 million or 12.4% of sales compared with $31.4 million or 11.2% of sales in the third quarter of 2019.
As for our tax rate, in the third quarter, the Company had an adjusted effective tax rate of 11.3% compared to 16.1% in the year ago period.
In the third quarter of 2020, Tennant generated $48.9 million in cash flow from operations, primarily driven by business performance and improvements in working capital.
Also in the third quarter, we repaid an additional $17 million of debt.
As of September 30th, we had $124.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, and approximately $172 million of undrawn funds on our revolver.
As included in today's earning announcement, our full year 2020 guidance is as follows; Net sales of $995 million to $1,005 million with organic sales declining 12.5% to 11.5%; GAAP earnings of $2.00 to $2.20 per share; adjusted earnings per share of $2.80 to $3.00 per share, which excludes certain non-operational items and amortization expense; adjusted EBITDA in the range of $116 million to $121 million; capital expenditures of approximately $35 million; and an effective tax rate of approximately 17%.
It's worth mentioning that our guidance does include approximately $5 million to $8 million of government benefits, which is primarily driven by the wage subsidies we received and mentioned in our second quarter results.

Summary:
As Andy will speak to in a few moments, we are reinitiating our full year guidance for 2020 which not only reflects our revenue and profitability expectations, but also our commitment to investing in our business to support our long-term enterprise strategy.
Overall, for the third quarter of 2020, Tennant reported net sales of $261.9 million, down 6.7% year-over-year.
For the third quarter, we reported net earnings of $11.7 million or $0.63 per share, down from $14.6 million or $0.79 per share in the year ago period.
Adjusted EPS, which excludes certain non-operational items and amortization, totaled $0.90 compared with $0.85 in the prior year.
As included in today's earning announcement, our full year 2020 guidance is as follows; Net sales of $995 million to $1,005 million with organic sales declining 12.5% to 11.5%; GAAP earnings of $2.00 to $2.20 per share; adjusted earnings per share of $2.80 to $3.00 per share, which excludes certain non-operational items and amortization expense; adjusted EBITDA in the range of $116 million to $121 million; capital expenditures of approximately $35 million; and an effective tax rate of approximately 17%.