Revlon’s third quarter ended September 30 remained relatively flat with the same time period a year ago when looking at just the performance of its individual segments. Overall, with the inclusion of the acquisition of The Colomer Group, total net sales grew $472.3 million, up from $333.1 million last year. Total company profit was $103.3 million compared to $78.9 million. A one-time extraordinary charge of $1.7 million was realized during the quarter related to Revlon’s headquarters relocation, for which the beauty firm had to pay double rent for one month.

In the third quarter of 2014 consumer segment net sales at Revlon decreased 0.9% to $348.2 million; excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations sales increased 2%. The increase was primarily driven by $8.8 million of favorable returns reserve adjustment in the U.S. as a result of lower expected discontinued products in the future. The adjustments were partially offset by increased return expense for current year returns that were based on innovation previously launched.

According to Lorenzo Delpani, Revlon’s President, Chief Executive Officer, “Revlon color cosmetics had positive momentum in the United States, but this was offset by declines in the distributor markets outside of the United States. Almay had a soft quarter, yet we remain focused on the preparation of its turnaround. SinfulColor has declined slightly due to category decline and fewer promotions this quarter versus last year. On a brighter note, Mitchum is growing behind its brand re-launch.”

Consumer segment profit decreased 2.9% to $78.1 million, which excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations increased 1.6%. The increase was largely due to higher gross profit as a result of the aforementioned return adjustment, offset by $3.8 million of higher marketing support for the company’s consumer brands including Revlon, Almay and Mitchum. Year-to-date, Revlon has spent approximately $24 million more than the prior year. The spending has been largely financed by net sales growth, cost reductions and integration synergies.

While the professional division has posted close to double-digit growth on a year-to-date basis, the growth in the third quarter was modest as higher net sales of American Crew, Revlon Professional and Crème of Nature were partially offset by lower net sales of CND nail products that in the quarter are compared against a very strong 2013 new product pipeline and the timing of certain promotions.

“However, the customer data we have seen on CND nails remain positive,” said Lorenzo.

Third quarter 2014 net professional sales were $124.1 million, which increased 1.2% on an as-reported basis or 2% excluding currency fluctuations. Professional segment profit was $25.2 million, which excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations was essentially flat.

Turning to sales by geography, sales in the U.S. were $243.8 million, 3.8% higher than same quarter last year. Within the consumer segment, U.S. net sales increased mainly due to the impact of the aforementioned returns adjustment.

Operating income and adjusted EBITDA for the period decreased 13.8%. Pro forma adjusted EBITDA decreased 5.3% to $85 million in the same comparative period. Both adjusted operating income and adjusted EBITDA were largely offset by higher market support of the company consumer brands, higher incentive compensation expense that was driven by a lower accrual in Q3 2013, and unfavorable foreign currency fluctuations of approximately $4 million.

Revlon is currently implementing its new go to market plan, which follows a “fewer, bigger, better innovations” strategy.

“The objective of our strategy of fewer, bigger, better innovations is to deliver market share growth and subsequently net sales growth, things that—and KPI that have not been achieved, if you want, for the past 10 years. One of the reasons that this management team believes that that’s the key reason is that we have innovated in quantity as opposed to quality. The change that is taking place, and what sometimes people that are not part of this process don’t fully appreciate, it takes time for this change to take place because we have two resets per year, so we can effectively make changes twice a year only, and a new product can take between, best scenario, one year to up to three, depending on the complexity to develop,” said Lorenzo.

The strategy of fewer, bigger, better innovations is going to take Revlon between 18 and 30 months to deploy.