Good morning, welcome to our Q3 report session through the webcasting. Together with me, I have Susanne Ehnbåge from Lindex, and Pekka Vähähyyppä, our CFO. I will start by reminding us that our corporate restructuring is proceeding as planned. On August 17th, the administrator provided all parties concerned a report of Stockmann plc's asset, liabilities, and other undertakings, and on the circumstances that affected the financial position of the company and its expected development. I would like to highlight that in this report, the administrator states that the preconditions for a viable business exist and a solid restructuring program can be established. We are now, as we speak, preparing to draw up our restructuring program, which will be filed by 11th of December this year. COVID has affected our performance dramatically. During the third quarter, I would say Stockmann Group business operations normalized gradually.
Stockmann and Lindex online sales were both performing very well with the improved sales growth. During the third quarter, Lindex online sales almost fully compensated the decline in the brick-and-mortar stores. If we look the group numbers, our revenue was EUR 207.6 million, and it was down by 6.88% with comparable currency rates. The adjusted operating result was EUR 13.9 million versus last year, EUR 5.4 million. We have a strong cash balance together, EUR 132 million. Lindex revenue was down only by 1.1% to EUR 146 million, the growth in the online sales was 103.5%. Operating costs in Lindex were down EUR 11.2 million, the result increased by EUR 8.1 million to EUR 21.5 million.
Stockmann Division's revenue was down by 20.7 percentage percent and exceeded EUR 61.6 million. The growth on online stores was 111%, and operating costs also on the Stockmann Division side were down by EUR 10.2 million. The operating result declined EUR 0.6 million to minus EUR 7.5 million. With the circumstances, I would say both divisions have done a remarkable job in handling costs and adjusting our situation to the circumstances we are facing due to the COVID epidemic. If we look more deeper to Stockmann Division performance in Q3, as I said, the revenue was down by 20.21% roughly, and it is because of the ongoing coronavirus situation.
Our online growth was 111%, the share of online sales was 7.1% for this quarter compared to last year, 2.7%, highlighting that also Stockmann Division is improving its online presence, though, a bit after where Lindex is currently. Stockmann was able to improve the gross margin to 49.3%, the increase is mainly due to the better sales mix and because there were no heavy de-clearance sales like in the previous years. Inventories declined remarkably from last year, so they were -26% versus the previous year. The operating cost was down EUR 10.2 million, lower personal cost and group function cost adapted to lower sales performance due to the corona. Still, it, Stockmann Division operating result is -EUR 7.5 million in this quarter.
Some highlights from the Q3. The visitor trend started to recover in the early phases of the Q3, but we saw already towards the end of the Q3 decline because of the coronavirus. We had a Crazy Days campaign this year, a 12-day long online campaign. The first day was 30th of September and continued until the 11th of October. The Crazy Days online store was successful and generated a sales growth of 58%. We've been continuing with our department store renewals. We've been renewing Tampere, Tapiola, Jumbo, and Helsinki flagship. We opened, in this period, a natural cosmetic department in our Helsinki flagship.
We also launched two new collections in August and early September. The first one was a very popular A+more and Populandia joint collection, and then a new brand, Essentials by Stockmann, which has been appreciated by the customers really well. We also organized an autumn fashion show, 12th of September, it was in Helsinki, and 18th of September it was in Riga. How do we see the forward going? We just launched last week our new web store, and it has been successfully launched. A new platform enables Stockmann Division for further developments, and the web store is developed together with our customers. We are also currently preparing to open the Christmas season. The Christmas shops were opened already 3rd of October, and Helsinki Christmas window will be opened 7th of November.
This year, we will have a beautiful Christmas magazine, which will be published in middle of November. As I said in the beginning, the restructuring program is ongoing, and we will file our program by 11th of December for the District Court of Helsinki. During this time, we also updated our strategy, and we are more clearly stating that it's now customer-centric. We have five must-win battles which will drive our performance moving forward. There is the customer relationship. We are going to improve our loyalty program. We want to be the number one inspiration within fashion, beauty, home, and food and beverages. Our groundbreaking omni-channel, we are developing a completely new omni-channel customer experience, and of course, the newly launched web store is helping us on this journey.
Stockmann United is all about how do we get our wonderful team to be more customer-focused, customer-driven culture, and as one United Stockmann. Financial sustainability, it is the key moving forward. We want to improve our profitability and capital allocation. We will renegotiate our commercial footprint. We are improving focus on selected customer groups to increase full price revenue, and we will drive growth in digital business. This is also about how do we improve our cost efficiency in common cost, and we will repay the restructuring debt. I would like to hand over to Susanne. Susanne, please take over.
Thank you. I will today present Lindex performance for the third quarter, and this is a quarter where we are still affected by the continued Corona situation, as also Jari said, but where we have also made necessary and quick adjustments which has showed great results. This is in line with the goal we at Lindex formed about six months ago, a goal that I also referred to when I presented the second quarter's result. Our goal is to be the company making the best possible rebound and to also do that in a sustainable way. This goal we aim to achieve, and the results for the third quarter is a proof of how important that is to us.
The result of the third quarter increased with 6% compared to last year, which means that we are also above last year's year-to-date result for the first nine months. We have been able to deliver this thanks to clear targets and amazing efforts from all Lindex employees. Lindex revenue for the third quarter was EUR 146 million, a decrease by 1.1%, but in comparable local currencies in Finland, it was up by 0.8%. We continued to continued the very positive development of our online sales throughout the quarter, and our e-commerce share is currently 13.2% of our total sales, which is more than double compared to 6.4% previous year. Our omni-channel set up with strong digital growth and our flexible store network is a strength for us.
Gross margin decreased to 60.7%, which is an effect of the channel mix. It also has to do with higher markdowns, since we in July and August had a bigger part of our summer sale than compared to previous year. Operating costs decreased by EUR 11.2 million, mainly thanks to our cost saving actions. Our operating profit amounted to EUR 12.5 million. Despite the Corona situation, our stock situation is lower compared to previous year, and this is a result of shorter lead time and more efficient supply chain. We can take the next page, please. If we take a look at our highlights during the quarter, our major focus has been to proceed with the adjustments of our business in order to support our strong online growth.
Over the last couple of months, we have both learned and achieved a lot in a short time. We have doubled our digital sales and even tripled for some markets. We have also had a successful launch on Zalando and look forward to a bright future together. To adapt and position Lindex in the new term after corona, it is crucial to secure as a resilient business. In the end of August, we initiated a cost reduction program with a reduction of 150 million SEK. This program is about adapting our organization to be more agile, more flexible, and innovative while securing a lower cost structure than today. I will go through this in more details and also our focus area for this when we look at our way forward.
Also, exploring new circular business models and prolonging the lifetime of our garments is an important part of our sustainability promise and also our journey to become circular. As part of this work, we have during the last couple of months tested a second-hand sales of Lindex kids' outerwear in two selected stores in Gothenburg in Sweden. We will now evaluate the test results to further develop this circular concept. Another highlight during the quarter is the successful launch of our new lingerie brand, Closely. They opened up their online store on the 1st of October and offer lingerie and sportswear with function and sustainability in focus. We have been partner and investor in Closely since the product started two years ago, and the partnership is part of our work to create new business opportunities based on Lindex strength.
We have a unique competence in lingerie and look forward of being part of the Closely's continued journey ahead. For the second time this year, our franchise business has received a global recognition, this time the highly commended award and rising star nomination at a major global event. The award recognizes Lindex franchise for the entrepreneurial spirit, achievements, and long-term ambitions and international expansion program. As I mentioned earlier, we will strive to act in a sustainable way, also in these times. When corona first hit us during spring, we, instead of canceling orders, we designed products to autumn garments. In this way, we both used the bought material in a smart, sustainable way, but also secured the wages and also work opportunities for the workers in production.
We have always been a strong business partner in our supply chain and are committed to remain one also in times like this. We can take a look at the next page, please. Looking into our way forward, our focus is on continued development and actions enabling a strong performance and a resilient Lindex. We have started to implement our cost reduction program with a reduction of SEK 150 million, reaching full effect in 2021. Due to the rapidly changed customer behavior accelerated by the corona situation, we have intensified optimization and integration of our sales channels. In October, we implemented a new organizational setup for our head office in Gothenburg as part of the cost reduction program. Another important part of the program is our ongoing work on reviewing our rental agreements and also optimizing our store portfolio.
We know that we have continued to gain market share throughout this year and that our brand is very strong. The store localization, the omni-channel setup, and naturally also the rental cost is more critical than ever to challenge and improve in all markets, also in the future. Our current store network gives us the flexibility to renegotiate and adapt our store network with more than 1/3 per year. To ensure a resilient Lindex, strategic investments in digital development, sustainability, and sales channels and innovation will be very important also for the next coming years. During October, we support the important Pink Month, and this year we are donating 10% of sales during the first weekend in October, and we are also donating all profit from specially designed products in recycled material.
Since the start in 2003, we have, together with customers, donated EUR 14.8 million. How much we will raise this year, we will be able to communicate next week. To wrap this up, we know that the challenges due to corona are far from over, and that the capability of being flexible and acting fast will become even more important ahead. During the third quarter, we managed to implement effective cost saving actions, but probably more important, we were able to keep a relatively strong revenue pushing the digital sales channels. I'm sure that with our fantastic fall and winter assortment, combined with everyone's great flexibility, commitment, and also contribution, we will face also the coming months in the best possible way.
As I mentioned before, our ambition is to be that company handling the ongoing situation in the best possible way. Thank you so much.
Good morning on my behalf as well. I'm Pekka Vähähyyppä, Group CFO. I will go through the consolidated figures. We had EUR 207 million revenue during third quarter. It went down nearly 7% using comparable currencies. Gross margin improved one percentage point and was 57.4%. Our operating costs in both divisions went down all in all EUR 14.9 million. I'm happy to say that our operating result was improved and was EUR 11.7 million. Adjusted operating profit also improved and amounted to EUR 13.9 million.
The difference between operating result and adjusting operating result is that we had restructuring costs a bit more than EUR 2 million during this quarter. We had a positive net result for the quarter, EUR 1.1 million, when it last year was negative EUR 18 million. During three years, Stockmann has been paying a lot of interest-bearing debt. We started 2018 with more than EUR 800 million debt. We have been decreasing our debt 2018, 2019. This year, when the restructuring started, our debt was frozen and the debt level has been stable.
Looking at our high key figures, we have a strong balance sheet. Our equity ratio was 35.8%. Our net gearing was 104%. Our accumulated year-to-date operating result was negative EUR 21.9 million, when it last year was negative EUR 9 million. We had smaller net financing expenses this year than last year. More than, well, roughly EUR 11 million less financing expenses. That is partly because we have now less interest during debt. We made a negative net loss, and that is EUR 51 million. However, we improved because last year the loss was EUR 5 million more.
We had strong cash flow from operating activities, EUR 109 million. Like Jari said, we had strong cash position, EUR 132 million. That is more than EUR 100 million more than we had in the beginning of the year. Our stock levels in both divisions went down and amounted to EUR 150 million. We had strict control of CapEx and our investments in during these first nine months were roughly EUR 10 million less than the year before. The total amount of balance was EUR 2.1 billion. Looking forward, we updated our guidance for the year.
We say that the pandemic has a significant negative impact on the entire group business operations. Especially, the fourth quarter is associated with greater uncertainty than normal due to the COVID situation. We see that the revenue for the full year will be on a lower level than the previous year, and the operating profit will be loss making. Like Jari said, we are working on the restructuring program, which will be distributed to the court by December 11th. With these words, I'll open the door for questions and answers. Thank you.
Yes. First question from Raul Juva. On rental agreements in Lindex, have you been able to achieve lower rents in rental agreements which have been renewed during the last six months?
Yes. Do you hear me?
Yes.
Yep. Yes. Yes, we have already started the negotiations. First, we have put most focus on getting reductions for this year. That is for the second quarter mainly. We have also started negotiation for the sort of long-term contracts. We have started to see good result from that one as well.
On Stockmann side, when will the renegotiated rents impact the P&L? Can you say anything about the details on the quantity, or how many stores have been already renegotiated?
We have currently renegotiated two department store agreements and the head office agreement. When we are reporting our figures according to IFRS 16, the biggest visible impact on the change of the lease agreements is in balance sheet. We have all in all our IFRS 16 lease liabilities went down during this first nine months roughly by EUR 90 million at group level. Most of that is EUR 47 million, is related to the renegotiated leases. The impact in income statement according to IFRS 16 is visible in depreciation and financing costs. Gradually, we will see improvement in those lines as well.
Then Storm Capital, seeing Lindex is performing well and is clearly very valuable. Do you expect to reinitiate the selling process?
As we have stated, we have two divisions. We have Lindex Division, and we have Stockmann Division. Sales process is not actual as we speak.
We will wait a couple of minutes for next new questions come. Please ask if you have anything. So far, we have answered all the ones that are visible right now.
Well, if no more questions, we say you are most welcome to visit all our stores. Christmas is approaching. We have wonderful Christmas ideas, both at Lindex and Stockmann side. Thank you for joining this morning.
Thank you.