Good morning. This is Kasey Jenkins, Vice President of McCormick Investor Relations. Thank you for joining today's third quarter earnings call. To accompany this call, we've posted a set of slides at ir.mccormick.com. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following our remarks, we will begin a question and answer session. If you need to reach the operator at any time during the call, please press star zero. We'll begin with remarks from Lawrence Kurzius, Chairman, President, and CEO, and Mike Smith, Executive Vice President and CFO. During our remarks, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These include information in constant currency as well as adjusted operating income, adjusted income tax rate, and adjusted earnings per share that exclude the impact of special charges and, for 2019, the net non-recurring benefit associated with the U.S. Tax Act.
Reconciliations to the GAAP results are included in this morning's press release and slides. In our comments, certain percentages are rounded. Please refer to our presentation for complete information. In addition, as a reminder, today's presentation contains projections and other forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or other factors. It is important to note these statements include expectations and assumptions which will be shared related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As seen on slide two, our forward-looking statements also provide information on risk factors, including the impact of the COVID-19, that could affect our financial results. It is now my pleasure to turn the discussion over to Lawrence.
Thank you, Kasey. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. The last few months have been an extraordinary period, and the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve daily. I'm incredibly proud of the way McCormick has performed in this unprecedented operating environment. Starting on slide four, let me highlight a few points on the current conditions we're seeing and their potential impacts. First, in our Consumer segment around the world, we are experiencing strong, sustained consumer demand, which is real incremental consumption and reflects the trend of consumers cooking more at home. In China, which is viewed as a leading indicator since their COVID-19 recovery is ahead of the rest of the world, the demand for food at home continues to be very strong. We see the same in Europe and, of course, in the Americas.
The significant shift to consumers eating more at home is persisting long enough that it has become a habit. Our proprietary consumer survey data, supported by other research, indicates the majority of consumers are cooking more from scratch, enjoying the cooking experience, and adding flavor to their meal occasions. These new behaviors, coupled with some consumer discomfort with dining out, are driving an increased and sustained preference for cooking at home. We believe this will continue globally and thus further benefit our Consumer segment. Turning to our Flavor Solutions segment, where we have a very diverse customer portfolio, we are seeing varying stages of recovery. Starting with the away-from-home portion of the segment, with our quick service restaurant customers, or QSRs, we are seeing strong signs of recovery. Their business models were already oriented to drive-through or carryout, not dining in.
In China, QSR traffic has returned to near normal levels, and limited time offers and promotions are driving demand. In the rest of the APZ region, as well as EMEA and Americas, the focus has been on core menu items. Moving into the fourth quarter, we see limited time offerings beginning to resume. Across the rest of food service, while it has shown signs of recovery since our second quarter, the pace is much slower and varies by channel and market. As we have previously mentioned, we expect the recovery in this area of the business to be more gradual and take time, likely years, as restaurants and other food service venues, such as stadiums and cafeterias, continue to be largely closed or operating under capacity limitations. Consumers are reluctant to dine out, and the restaurant industry has experienced significant pain.
From a food at home perspective, our flavor solutions growth varies by packaged food customer, but overall, we're returning to pre-COVID-19 levels. As expected, new product opportunities, which have slowed during the crisis and have been more focused on expansion of the core, are beginning to gain increased momentum, and we're excited about their contribution to growth next year. In summary, for our total Flavor Solution segment, business is gradually rebounding, though not yet to 2019 levels. Moving to our global supply chain. Coming into the crisis, there was more finished goods inventory in the system, both for us and our customers, which was depleted early in the crisis. The sustained elevated level of demand, coupled with our added employee safety measures, has challenged our manufacturing operations. Service has been stressed in some areas, and inventory replenishment will take some time.
The real pressure has been on our U.S. manufacturing operations, and we've had to suspend or curtail production of some secondary products to meet demand for our top-selling products. While the rest of the world is also experiencing elevated consumer demand, they've not experienced the same level of manufacturing pressure, given the capacity and capabilities we've built outside of the Americas in the past few years. In EMEA, where our supply chain is very well positioned to meet demand, we've gained distribution as other manufacturers have faced challenges. For the Americas, as we said on our earnings call in June, we're expanding our workforce and increasing manufacturing capacity through optimized scheduling and investments, particularly around blending capacity, as well as scaling up partnerships with third-party manufacturers. To be clear, this added capacity is still ramping up.
This capacity just started to come online in August and will continue to ramp up over the next few months, and is targeted to be completely in place by the end of the calendar year. By then, we will have added the equivalent of an additional plant of U.S. manufacturing capacity. Of course, with this rapid scale-up, there are extra costs and short-term inefficiencies, but we're confident we're implementing efficient long-term solutions. The investments we're making are not just to meet the higher demand for the balance of 2020, but to strengthen our supply chain resiliency longer term and to support the Americas consumer growth we anticipate continuing into next year, driven by both sustained demand as well as retailer inventory replenishment. We're making good progress. Our service levels continue to improve, and we're confident in our capabilities and ability to meet demand, particularly during the holiday season.
We're positioning ourselves for continued success. I want to thank our supply chain employees for their remarkable efforts, as well as our suppliers and customers for their partnership in this challenging environment. The positive fundamentals we have in place have enabled us to manage through this period of volatility. The investments we've made and the capabilities we've built, combined with our strong business model, prepared us to execute from a position of strength. As the crisis subsides, we will emerge an even better company by driving our long-term strategies, responding to changing consumer behavior, and capitalizing on opportunities from our relative strength. Now, I'd like to focus on our third quarter performance, business updates on our Consumer and Flavor Solutions segments, and our two-for-one stock split announcement.
As seen on slide six, we have a broad and advantaged global flavor portfolio, which continues to position us to meet the demand for flavor around the world and grow our business. The breadth and reach of our portfolio across segments, geographies, channels, customers, and product offerings create that balanced portfolio to drive consistency in our performance in a volatile environment, as evidenced by our third quarter results. During the third quarter, the shift in consumer behavior to cooking and eating more at home for at home consumption drove a substantial increase in our Consumer segment demand, as well as increases with our packaged food company customers and our Flavor Solutions segment. On the other hand, we experienced a decline in demand from our restaurant and other food service customers for the away-from-home products in our portfolio, which historically has represented approximately 20% of our total annual company sales.
The impact of this shift to more at-home consumption varied by region due to the differing levels of away-from-home consumption in each, as seen on slide six, as well as the pace of each region's COVID-19 recovery. Taken together, these impacts continue to demonstrate the strength and diversity of our offerings. While we may experience temporary disruptions in parts of our business, underlying consumer demand continues to underpin our growth. Let me cover the highlights of our third quarter, which were broadly in line with the trends we discussed in our earnings call in June. Starting with our top line, third quarter sales increased 8% from the year- ago period. In constant currency, sales grew 9%, mainly attributable to significantly higher volume and product mix in our Consumer segment, with a partial offset from a low single-digit decline in our Flavor Solutions segment.
Adjusted operating income increased 5%, including a 1% unfavorable impact from currency. These results were driven by higher sales, favorable mix, primarily driven by the sales mix between segments, and CCI-led cost savings, partially offset by higher costs, including those related to COVID-19. Our third quarter adjusted earnings per share was $1.53, 5% higher than the year- ago period of $1.46, driven primarily by our strong operating performance. With one quarter left in the year, we have resumed guidance and expect to deliver another year of strong, profitable growth. Our results continue to be driven by the engagement of our employees and the successful execution of our strategy. We are confident in our 2020 outlook, which will be covered in detail in a few moments. Let me spend a few minutes on our business segment updates.
Starting on slide eight with our Consumer segment, sales rose 15%, with minimal impact from currency, fueled by the change in consumer behavior. Research and trend data show that not only are consumers cooking more at home, they are enjoying it, both from a flavor and family experience, and have even accelerated their use of spices, seasonings, and condiments as the pandemic has progressed. Additionally, as at-home consumption from restaurant carryout and delivery is increasing, many consumers are adding flavor with spices, sauces, or condiments they have at home. We believe these trends will last beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and drive continued growth. Our America's constant currency sales growth was 17% in the third quarter. Our total McCormick U.S. branded portfolio, as indicated in our IRI consumption data, grew 28%, which is substantial and reflects the strength of our categories as consumers cook more at home.
Our sales increase was lower than the U.S. IRI consumption growth attributable to a few factors. First, the service level pressures and product allocation from the supply chain challenges I mentioned previously. Next, the timing of the holiday program we offer retailers. We generally offer the program during our third quarter to encourage early in-store display and merchandising of holiday products. The impact of this program was included in our third quarter shipments in 2019. In 2020, though, with the elevated level of demand and focus on keeping core items on shelf, a portion of retailer purchases for this program has shifted to our fourth quarter. Notwithstanding this shift, we still expect another year of strong holiday execution. Lastly, increased level of pricing growth in the scanner data due to curtailed third quarter promotions and a channel shift with grocery outpacing mass merchandisers and club stores.
Focusing on the U.S. branded portfolio, consumption in all key categories grew at a double-digit rate in the third quarter, with the majority of our categories continuing to outpace the total store and center-of-store growth rates. In fact, consumption in our portfolio during the third quarter grew two and a half times the center-of-store rate, which is an increase from the comparison in the second quarter. While we do not expect consumption to continue at the highly elevated level of our third quarter, we do expect continued and long-lasting growth from the increase in consumers cooking at home. The most recent IRI scanner sales data for the week ended September 13th showed McCormick U.S. branded portfolio consumption still growing over 20%, with continued strength in spices and seasonings.
We gained share in seven out of 11 categories during the third quarter, those which were less impacted by supply constraints, including hot sauces, stocks and broths, barbecue sauce, wet marinades, and Asian products. While there was noise in the third quarter share numbers for categories impacted by supply, such as spices and seasonings, dry recipe mixes, and mustard, on a year-to-date basis, we're relatively flat or gaining share in those categories, too. New products launched earlier in the year, such as Frank's RedHot thick sauces, OLD BAY hot sauce, and Stubb's Reduced Sugar barbecue sauce, have continued to get exceptional trial and contributed to the third quarter growth. The sell-in of our second half new product launches, however, has been slowed due to the focus on keeping core items on retail shelves, and these launches will now be further opportunities to fuel growth next year.
Our strong performance across household penetration and rate of repeat buyers continued in the third quarter across our portfolio. Our household penetration rate increased 8% compared to last year, driving a significant amount of trial for millions of new households across multiple categories. Spices and seasonings, dry recipe mixes, and hot sauces had the biggest gain. Even smaller brands like Simply Asia and Thai Kitchen grew significantly, and their rate of repeat buyers increased 7% during the quarter, with double-digit repeat rates in many categories. These metrics increasing significantly, both in our second quarter and third quarter, indicates a high level of usage and speaks to the stickiness of our products. Consumers are coming into our brands, having a good experience, and buying our products again.
With our high level of effective brand marketing investments, including planned increases in the fourth quarter, and our initiatives to deepen our digital connection with consumers, we're capitalizing on the opportunity to build long-term brand equity, capture trial, and increase usage by existing consumers. We're continuing to design targeted media messaging focused on cooking at home, teaching consumers how to use our products, and providing them flavor inspiration. As the younger generation continues to fuel the demand for flavor and everyone has accelerated their online presence, we're executing on creative ways to connect with them. For instance, one way we're connecting with consumers is by helping them discover new ways to enjoy time-honored traditions. Take tailgating, for example.
With football season now in full swing, we partnered with former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning to create the largest virtual homegating experience, letting lucky fans interact with Eli to learn about his favorite Frank's RedHot flavored snacks. The recent event garnered over 750 million media impressions across digital media platforms. Moving from the football season to the holiday season, our fourth quarter is an important one from a seasonal standpoint. Our consumers' holiday dinners may be more important than ever this year, and we're excited about helping make them memorable flavor experiences. In terms of brand marketing, we're launching a holiday version of our It's Gonna Be Great campaign, which recognizes celebrations might be different this year, in addition to our normal holiday promotion activities. From a supply chain standpoint, we're protecting our top-selling holiday products.
We have confidence that we are well positioned for a successful holiday season. Our portfolio and the plans we have in place are even more relevant today than they were before the crisis, as we expect the increase in at-home cooking to persist. We will continue to drive our category leadership and growth momentum through strong brand marketing, category management initiatives, and new product innovations. Now turning to EMEA. Our constant currency sales rose 23%, with broad-based growth across the region. Our largest markets drove double-digit total branded consumption growth, with market share gains across the region in our key categories. Importantly, we gained total EMEA region share in spices and seasonings and dry recipe mixes. Spices and seasonings consumption was strong in all markets, driven by consumers cooking more at home and discovering they need our products for great-tasting, healthy flavor solutions.
Our brand marketing campaigns highlighting our product superiority and culinary partnerships, coupled with pivoting our digital messages based on real-time consumer insights to the topics most relevant to consumers in formats that resonate the most, are driving spices and seasoning momentum. In the U.K., our Schwartz brand new dry recipe mixes, such as one pan meal seasoning, offering convenience and natural herb and spice blends for vegetarian options, are attracting younger consumers to the category and driving new distribution gains, as well as category growth. We achieved the leading U.K. market share position in dry recipe mixes at the beginning of the year, and we continued to gain significant market share in the third quarter. With the momentum in baking continuing, combined with successful new product launches, we again had exceptional consumption growth in our Vahiné brand in France, outpacing the homemade desserts category and gaining share.
Notably, Frank's RedHot turned up the heat during the third quarter with over 40% consumption growth, driven partly by a successful digital grilling campaign as well as new distribution. We're gaining millions of new households and driving repeat purchases. Our household penetration increased significantly across our major brands and markets during the third quarter compared to last year, with double-digit growth percentages in both the U.K. and France spices and seasonings category, as well as in the U.K. dry recipe mixes and France homemade desserts category. Our rate of repeat buyers in these markets and categories also grew by double digits. Our strong brand marketing and digital campaigns, which we have increased in EMEA, provide us with confidence we will continue growing with our new consumer we're welcoming to our brand, as well as our existing value consumer.
Moving forward in EMEA, we'll continue to capture the momentum we've gained and are excited with our growth trajectory following challenging market conditions over the past few years. In the Asia Pacific region, our constant currency sales declined 6%, driven by declines in branded food service products, which are included in our Consumer segment in China. Excluding those impacts, sales for the region would have increased, reflecting the increase in consumer demand across the region related to more cooking at home. In China, our consumer to business growth was strong, driven by consumers' demand for convenient solutions, fueling our growth of recipe mixes as well as world flavor and hot pot sauces. Continued momentum in condiments also contributed to growth.
In other parts of the region, we have broad-based growth led by Australia's strong consumption and share growth in branded spices and seasonings, particularly in Gourmet Garden, with high double-digit rates of new consumers and repeat buys, and Frank's RedHot, with over 50% growth during the pandemic. Finally, in all regions, consumer digital engagement has increased significantly as we continue to experience accelerated e-commerce growth in all categories, whether it be pure play, click and collect, or our own direct-to-consumer properties. The pace of growth has slowed from the second quarter, which was heavily impacted by more extensive stay-at-home periods, but we again drove triple-digit growth in the third quarter, as well as increasing our market share in several markets. We expect the shift to online shopping behavior to continue, and we're well positioned for it through the investments we've made and continue to make in this channel.
Our consumer growth plans, based on our strategy, have been in place since the beginning of the year, and were yielding results before the crisis, and we've been able to leverage our initiatives to capitalize on the opportunity to help our consumers during this time and strengthen our category leadership position, which further bolsters our confidence that we will drive future growth. Turning to slide 10 in our Flavor Solution segment, our sales performance improved substantially from a second quarter constant currency decline of 16%. Our third quarter constant currency sales were 1% lower than last year, attributable to lower demand from restaurant and other food service customer in our Americas and EMEA region, driven by the decline in away from home consumption.
Almost fully offsetting this lower demand was continued growth in sales to our packaged food customer across all regions, as well as strong sales growth to quick service restaurants in China. In the Americas, our sales declined 3% in constant currency, driven by demand declines across both branded food service and restaurant customers. With the branded food service impact more significant as our away from home customer base in the Americas is skewed more to that channel. We're continuing to work with our customers impacted by away from home consumption declines to manage through their recovery efforts. With our customer intimacy approach, we're collaborating to provide solutions such as menu simplification and optimization, branded portion control packaging for dining in and carry out, and condiment dispensing solutions for food service operations.
We're building menu excitement with strong promotions and leveraging the power of our brands, driving wins for both our customer and us. We're excited about new distribution gains, as well as upcoming menu participation and limited time offers as the recovery momentum continues. In EMEA, our sales rose 1% in constant currency, a significant rebound from a 31% decline in our second quarter. Our away from home customer base in this region is skewed more to QSR, and in the third quarter as they reopened with adapted operating models and resumed limited dine-in options, our demand from these customers rebounded, although still modestly below the third quarter of last year. The recovery with other food service customers also began in the third quarter as COVID-19 restrictions eased, although, as expected, slower and not to the same extent as QSR.
Turning to our at-home customer base, we had strong growth in our flavor sales to packaged food companies similar to pre-COVID-19 levels. Driven by the strength in their core iconic products, as well as momentum from new products launched at the beginning of the year. We're advantaged by our differentiated customer engagement in this evolving environment, which has driven continued wins with our EMEA Flavor Solutions customer. Whether it be quickly scaling up to meet aggressive recovery plans, collaborating on opportunities, or managing through demand volatility, we're responding with speed and agility and further strengthening our customer relationships. In the Asia Pacific region, our constant currency sales grew 7%, driven by China and Australia's growth with QSR customers. During the third quarter, QSRs in these countries were largely open, We are seeing momentum gains in the core business, in limited time offers, and our customers' promotional activities.
Government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions and reduced levels of limited time offers continued to cur tail growth in parts of the region. For the balance of the year, we expect a reduced level of our customers' limited time offers and promotional activities versus last year to impact growth. We continue, across all regions, to be fully committed to helping our customers manage through the COVID-19 recovery phase, of which the duration is still uncertain. The slow and evolving recovery process is dependent on many factors, including restrictions being lifted, venues fully reopening, and possible resurgences. We have positive fundamentals in place to navigate through this period of volatility, and we remain confident in the successful execution of our strategies driving long-term growth trajectory in Flavor Solutions.
Now, before turning it over to Mike and beginning on slide 11, I'd like to mention the stock split we announced this morning and provide a few summary comments, including on our 2020 outlook. I'm pleased with our announcement this morning of a two-for-one stock split, reflecting our sustained positive performance and outlook for continued growth. It has been 18 years since the last split of stock, which was in 2002, when the pre-split share price was $52.33. We believe this will provide greater liquidity and be appreciated by individual investors and employees. Now, in summary, at the foundation of our sales growth is the global demand for flavor. We're capitalizing on the growing consumer interest in healthy, flavorful cooking, heritage brands, and digital engagement.
These long-term trends have not only remained intact during the crisis, they have accelerated, and our alignment with them positions us well to meet increased consumer demand, both through our products and our customers' products. We are driving sales growth balanced with a focus on lowering costs to expand margin and sustainably realize earnings growth. We have a solid foundation, and in an environment that continues to be dynamic and fast-paced, we are ensuring we remain agile, relevant, and focused on long-term sustainable growth. We have delivered outstanding year-to-date results during a period of great disruption, proving the strength of our business model. Our strategies are effective and reinforcing our confidence they will continue to drive future growth. Our 2020 outlook, which Mike will discuss in detail in a few moments, reflects the strength of our year-to-date performance and the momentum we're carrying into our fourth quarter and 2021.
We are exceeding the objectives we had in place at the beginning of the year, delivering stronger sales and underlying operating performance, while importantly, also ensuring the health and safety of our employees, investing in our supply chain resiliency to meet growth we expect in 2021, recognizing the exceptional performance of our people throughout the COVID-19 crisis, and supporting our communities through relief efforts. Our growth expectations reflect our confidence in the sustainability of higher at-home consumption trends. As we look toward fiscal 2021, we expect constant currency organic sales growth in both of our segments, on top of the outstanding Consumer segment growth this year. I want to recognize McCormick employees around the world for driving our momentum and success and thank them for their effort, engagement, and for adapting to this new environment. It is now my pleasure to turn it over to Mike.
Thanks, Lawrence, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin now by providing some additional comments on our third quarter performance and then our financial outlook for the balance of the year. Starting on slide 14, during the third quarter, sales were up 9% in constant currency. Sales growth was driven by substantially higher volume and mix in our Consumer segment, partially offset by lower volume and mix in our Flavor Solutions segment. Pricing to partially offset cost inflation also contributed favorably to both segments. Consumer segment sales grew 15% in constant currency, led by the Americas and EMEA regions. The shift to at-home consumption and cooking more at home, as well as consumers adding flavor at home to their restaurant carryout and delivery, has driven substantial demand for our consumer products, driving higher volume and mix in these regions.
On slide 15, Consumer segment sales in the Americas increased 17% in constant currency versus the third quarter of 2019. The increase was driven by significant growth across our branded portfolio, including higher volume and product mix of McCormick spices and seasonings, as well as Simply Asia, Thai Kitchen, Gourmet Garden, Frank's RedHot, Zatarain's, Stubb's, Lawry's, and El Guapo products. Additionally, the pricing actions taken prior to COVID-19 in the first quarter to partially offset increased costs also contributed to the growth. In EMEA, constant currency consumer sales grew 23% from a year ago, with double-digit volume and mix growth in all countries across the region.
The most significant growth drivers were our Schwartz and Ducros branded spices and seasonings, our Vahiné homemade dessert products, and our Schwartz dry recipe mixes. Consumer sales in Asia Pacific declined 6% in constant currency, driven by lower branded food service sales, as Lawrence mentioned.
This decline was partially offset by increased consumer demand across the region, with growth led by China's recipe mixes, sauces, and condiments, as well as Australia's branded spices, seasonings, and condiments. Turning to our Flavor Solutions segment in slide 18, third quarter constant currency sales decreased 1%, driven by declines in away from home products in the portfolios of our Americas and EMEA regions. In the Americas, Flavor Solutions constant currency sales declined 3%, driven by a significant decline in sales to branded food service customers, in addition to lower sales to quick service restaurants. Partially offsetting these declines were increased sales to packaged food companies and pricing to offset cost increases. In EMEA, constant currency sales increased 1%, driven by pricing to cover cost increases, also partially by lower volume and product mix.
Volume and product mix declined, driven by a reduction in sales to branded food service customers, in addition to lower sales to quick service restaurant customers. Partially offsetting these declines was sales growth with packaged food companies. In the Asia Pacific region, flavor solution sales rose 7% in constant currency, driven by higher sales to quick service restaurants in China and Australia, partially driven by our customers' limited time offers and promotional activities. As seen on slide 22, adjusted operating income, which excludes special charges, increased 5% in the third quarter versus the year- ago period. In constant currency, adjusted operating income grew by 6% and was driven by substantial growth in the Consumer segment, partially offset by a significant decline in the Flavor Solutions segment.
Adjusted operating income growth in the Consumer segment was 18%, increasing to $209 million, or in constant currency was 19%, driven primarily by higher sales. In the Flavor Solutions segment, adjusted operating income declined 24% to $64 million, or 22% in constant currency, driven partially by lower sales, unfavorable product mix due to the decline in branded food service sales, and an unfavorable impact to manufacturing costs resulting from the lower volume. Both segments were also unfavorably impacted by COVID-19 related supply chain costs, including those related to additional compensation for our operations employees, safety and sanitation measures, and scaling up to meet increased demand, as well as higher incentive compensation, which was driven by our strong year- to- date sales and operating profit performance. These unfavorable impacts were partially offset by CCI-led cost savings.
Gross profit margin expanded 70 basis points in the third quarter versus the year- ago period, driven primarily by favorable product mix resulting from the sales shift between segments and CCI-led cost savings, with a partial offset from COVID-19 related costs. Adjusted operating margin compression of 60 basis points compared to the third quarter of last year was driven by the net impact of the factors I just mentioned, as well as higher distribution costs. Turning to income taxes on slide 24, our third quarter adjusted effective income tax rate was 19.3% as compared to 17.6% in the year- ago period. Both years were favorably impacted by discrete tax items, principally stock option exercise. Income from unconsolidated operations of $10 million in the third quarter was comparable to the year- ago period. At the bottom line, as shown on slide 26, third quarter 2020 adjusted earnings per share was $1.53.
That's compared to $1.46 for the year-ago period. The increase was primarily driven by our higher adjusted operating income, with lower interest expense offsetting the impact of a higher adjusted income tax rate. This increase also includes an unfavorable impact from foreign currency exchange rates. On slide 27, we summarize highlights for cash flow and the quarter-end balance sheet. Our cash flow provided from operations was $627 million through the third quarter of 2020, a 27% increase compared to $495 million through the third quarter of 2019, and was driven by higher net income. We finished the third quarter with a cash conversion cycle at 36 days, down seven days versus our 2019 fiscal year-end. We returned $247 million of cash to shareholders through dividends and used $146 million for capital expenditures through the third quarter of 2020.
Additionally, we were very happy that during the third quarter, we fully paid off the terms notes related to the acquisition of the Frank's and French's brands, and ended the third quarter with a net debt adjusted EBITDA ratio of 3.1x . We continue to project another year of strong cash flow. Our priority is to continue to have a balanced use of cash, making investments to drive growth, including through acquisitions, returning a significant portion to our shareholders through dividends, and to pay down debt. Let's now move to our 2020 financial outlook. As a reminder, we withdrew our 2020 guidance during our first quarter earnings call in late March. The operating environment over the past six months has continued to evolve.
While there still remains much uncertainty and many variables which can drive a range of possible outcomes, we recognize our year-to-date performance has been strong, and we are currently in the last quarter of our fiscal year. As such, we are resuming our 2020 guidance at this time based on the expectations Lawrence shared earlier this morning. Most notably, that the shift in consumer demand to at-home consumption versus away from home will continue for the balance of the year and even beyond. We believe this shift will continue to favorably impact the Consumer segment in our fourth quarter. While the away from home part of the Flavor Solutions portfolio has begun to recover, it will continue to be unfavorably impacted. We expect the impact for both segments will not be to the same extent that we have realized in the past six months.
Starting with the top line, we expect to grow sales at the upper end of a 4%-5% range, which in constant currency is a range of 5%-6%. This increase is expected to be entirely organic and reflects growth driven by new products, expanded distribution, brand marketing, and pricing, which in conjunction with cost saving, is expected to offset anticipated mid-single-digit inflationary pressures. It includes the net impact of the shift in demand due to COVID-19 and the consumer's sustained preference for cooking at home. Our 2020 gross profit margin is expected to be 75-100 basis points higher than 2019, in part driven by our CCI-led cost savings and favorable product mix, partially offset by COVID-19 related costs.
Our adjusted operating income growth rate reflects the expected strength of our constant currency sales performance and underlying profit realization, partially offset by higher expenses related to COVID-19 and incentive compensation. We are projected to grow adjusted operating income by 4%-5%, or 5%-6% in constant currency. This includes our cost savings targets of approximately $105 million and an expected mid-single-digit increase of brand marketing investments. We are estimating our COVID-19 costs, which include expenses related to additional compensation for our frontline operations employees, safety and sanitation measures, and scaling up to meet increased demand, as well as donations to relief organizations, will be approximately $40 million-$50 million for fiscal year 2020, with the majority of this cost impacting gross profit.
Our estimated increase in incentive compensation is driven by our projected strong fiscal year sales and operating profit performance and is consistent with our commitment to a pay-for-performance philosophy. Our 2020 adjusted effective income tax rate is projected to be approximately 20%, based on our year-to-date performance, including the impact of favorable discrete items and the estimated mix of earnings by geography. This outlook compares to our 2019 adjusted effective tax rate of 19.5%. Our income from unconsolidated operations is also expected to be impacted by unfavorable currency rates, and as a result, we are projecting a mid-single-digit decline. Our guidance range for adjusted earnings per share in 2020 is $5.64-$5.72. This compares to $5.35 of adjusted earnings per share in 2019 and represents a 5%-7% increase, which in constant currency is a 6%-8% increase.
In summary, we are projecting another strong year of underlying operating performance while doing is right by first protecting our employees and recognizing their contributions. Second, by supporting our communities through relief efforts. Finally, by making supply chain and brand marketing investments to meet our expected growth into fiscal 2021. While we are not providing guidance for next year, I want to note that we do expect constant currency organic sales growth in both our segments in 2021, as Lawrence mentioned earlier. Additionally, I want to provide you a brief update on our ERP replacement program. We indicated in March that we were rephasing the timing of this program to focus on the challenging environment during the pandemic. We have remained excited and committed to our Global Transformation Initiative. While the environment is still challenging, we have continued to work on this program.
The delay provides us an opportunity to do some replanning, and as SAP has improved their product, our ramp-up will be on a new version with a broader suite of applications, allowing us to save an upgrade cycle as well. We have not completed our planning yet, but we do not anticipate any major go-lives in 2021. We will provide further updates on our ERP program on our earnings call in January. Finally, I would also like to mention that yesterday, our board of directors approved a two-for-one stock split with one share of common stock or common stock non-voting to be issued for each like outstanding share. The additional shares will be distributed on November 30th. Trading is expected to begin on a split-adjusted basis on December 1st.
This stock split reflects the confidence we have in our future. We believe it will provide greater liquidity and allow the stock to be more accessible to a broad range of investors. I'd like to now turn it back to Lawrence for some closing remarks before we move to your questions.
Thank you, Mike. Now that Mike has shared our financial results and 2020 outlook in more detail, I'd like to recap the key takeaways as seen on slide 29. We've delivered outstanding year-to-date results during a period of great disruption, proving the strength of our business model, the value of our products, and our capabilities as a company. Our foundation is solid, our strategies are effective. Our 2020 outlook reflects another year of strong operating performance while doing what is right for our employees and communities, as well as making investments for the growth we expect in both segments next year. We are confident in our ability to perform in this dynamic environment and to continue delivering differentiated results and build long-term value. Now I'd like to turn to your questions.
Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. If you're to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and the confirmation tone indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you like to remove your question from the queue. A participant using a speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pickup your handset before pressing the star key. One moment please while we pull up your questions. Thank you. Our first question is from the line of Andrew Lazar with Barclays. Please proceed with your questions.
Good morning, everybody.
Hi, Andrew. Good morning. Thanks for hanging in there for a very long script.
No worries. Our pleasure. Two things would be, first off, thanks for your thoughts around your expectations for organic sales into next year. I'm curious, as we think about EBIT for next year, obviously we're not in a position to give any kind of guidance, but maybe you can just cover off on a couple of the discrete items, puts and takes, that we kind of know about. Meaning, I know you covered, Mike, $40 million-$50 million of COVID-related costs this year. Is all of that expected to not repeat next year, or does a portion go into next year? Then, any way you can break out what the incremental maybe incentive comp cost is expected to be this year?
Just any other things that are discrete that we kind of know now that we should take into account as we think about sort of profit growth next year. Then I've just got a follow-up. Thank you.
Hey, Andrew, it's Mike. I'll answer this, and if Lawrence has any comments, he can chime in. You referred to the COVID costs. Obviously, we talked about this year, about $40 million-$50 million incremental costs in 2020. We expect some of those to continue. However, some of those we don't expect to continue. Some of the things like we're scaling up production, we're onboarding people. We have incremental co-packers in place now. We would expect that to not impact us into next year. However, some of the things we've done, like PPE and other coverage for our employees, we do expect to continue. It's a mix of that. However, a lot depends on the environment and the continued resurgence. Our January guidance will give you a lot more detail on that, obviously.
Right. In addition to what Mike said, there are costs that we incurred for temporary plant closures or extraordinary sanitation that we do not anticipate happening again next year. Just bringing on all of this capacity has been done very quickly, and as a result, it's been brought on somewhat inefficiently in the short term, and we would expect that efficiency rate to go up as we get into next year. Now, on incentive comp, Mike mentioned a word about that. I certainly hope that it's not a tailwind next year. If it isn't a tailwind, it's because of continued extraordinary performance. We have a pay-for-performance philosophy. Our employees have really delivered this year, incentive comp across all levels of the organization is pretty much at the top of our program range. It would take a really extraordinary performance to repeat that.
Probably it's going to be a tailwind as well. In any case, the underlying business results that we delivered this year don't get paid for twice. Our plan is to pay for growth.
Yep, makes sense. You mentioned capacity, and I want to dig into that a little bit. I'm curious if there's a way to sort of spread out a little bit how much of the upcoming capacity that's coming online is sort of internal versus stepped-up use of third parties. Really the reason I ask is that I'd assume that McCormick would not be adding its own sort of internal capacity in any significant way unless it thought that some of these recently elevated trends were likely to persist somewhat longer term. Not at current levels necessarily, but longer term in a way that you kind of felt like you needed internal capacity as opposed to just accessing the flexibility of third party manufacturers.
Andrew, it's a mix. Some of the capacity we've gained has been by adding people and changing our shift patterns so that we have more of our facilities operating on a 24/7 or 25/7 schedule. Not just on some lines, but in some cases on all lines. That's one way we've added capacity. We've been able to make some investments in blending capacity that are internal. We have brought on quite a lot of third-party co-packing capacity that is an incremental cost that we would hope to absorb into our own facilities over the course of next year.
That's primarily with a strategic partner that we already do co-packing with also. We're not creating a quality risk out there also.
Got it. Great. Thank you very much.
The next question is from the line of Ken Goldman with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, thank you. One clarification and then I have a broader question. Just building on Andrew's question, you talked about no major go-live for ERP in 2021. Is it fair for us to assume that obviously the costs will be delayed maybe until 2022 as well from that? Or are there some costs that you'll incur in advance? Just curious on that first.
We're continuing, even though we talked earlier about delaying the ERP, we're still incurring costs this year. We're going to spend in 2020 around the same level as we did in 2019. You can expect as we replan this, we'll have costs in next year. We're not prepared at this point though to talk about the level of cost. We just wanted to highlight the fact that go-lives, which bring with them major costs, aren't going to really happen until 2022. We'll have more, o bviously, in our January guidance, we'll sharpen the pencils for that.
Yep. Okay, that's helpful. I wanted to poke around a little bit on your commentary about organic growth in the Consumer segment next year. The market's right now looking for, the Street's looking for low-single-digit decline, so you're surprising to the upside, I think. I wanted to ask, clearly you have a very strong first quarter coming up. You should anyway, given that you don't lap against COVID-19. After that, there's some reasonably high bars to comp against. I'm just curious, to what extent is your confidence in this top-line growth next year informed maybe a little bit by the increase in capacity, and also the potential trade load that could bleed from this year into next? I'm asking because obviously we should continue to see great food at home trends next year.
Maybe that guidance will be easier to digest if it's built on, I guess something more than the expectation of just end demand growth. Hopefully that makes sense.
Ken, that makes a lot of sense, and that is a great question because I think you've written about this, and I think that the analyst community as a group, the consensus that's out there right now undercalls what we think the growth potential is. That's why we have commented on 2021 at this early stage when we normally would really be focused completely on 2020. Even before COVID-19 hit, consumers were cooking more at home. They were using more spices and seasonings and sauces to prepare fresher, healthier meals. They were moving to trusted and heritage brands. We talked about this. The pandemic accelerated these trends and other trends like e-commerce that already underpin our strategies and that we were already capitalizing on. Consumers haven't been doing anything that is contrary to what they had been trending to do already. They're just doing more of it.
The data that we've got and that we talked about in our prepared remarks shows that most consumers are cooking more, they're enjoying it, they intend to cook more, and our brands have gained penetration in millions of households with a high level of repeat that shows strong satisfaction with the experiences that they're having. We're not just seeing it in the U.S., we're seeing this play out globally. We've continued to invest behind our brands and drive them through the entirety of the crisis. We've got a robust pipeline of innovation that includes some backlog from this year to launch in 2021 too. We've added a lot of resilience and capacity in the supply chain, and the market, frankly, has taken all of it, and we're still ramping up for more.
Just to meet the existing demand for consumption, and as you noted, we have store shelves to restock, retailer inventory to replenish, and a broad range of suspended SKUs to restart. Yeah, we think that there's gonna be some moderation. There are gonna be a couple of periods and areas where there are tough comparisons, but we absolutely expect growth in our Consumer segment next year for very good reasons.
I think also to highlight the fact that we're upping our spend in brand marketing in the fourth quarter. We've guided to mid-single digits for the year, which would imply we have a 12%-18% increase in the fourth quarter because that advertising will drive growth in the first and second quarter. We're really investing behind the brand at this opportunity.
Very clear. Thank you.
I don't even need to talk about Flavor Solutions with everybody.
No, yeah.
Okay.
I think we expect that to be up already. Thank you.
Yep.
Our next question comes from the line of Alexia Howard with AllianceBernstein. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning, everyone.
Hi, Alexia.
Good morning.
Hi there. Can I ask about, you mentioned promotional activity was reduced obviously because of the constraints on supply over the last few months on the consumer side. As you look forward, are the retailers beginning to ask for that spending back? I know spices and seasonings are not generally that heavily promoted, but I'm just wondering about the dynamic with retailers there and whether they're likely to ask for an elevated spend as we look out into the tail end of this year and into 2021.
Sure. Well, all that we've done, first of all, has been done in cooperation and collaboration with retailers. Pretty much through much of the third quarter and into fourth, our promotional plans are actually in place. What's different is that the product is on allocation in many cases, the amount that retailers can take on a promotion is limited, number one. Number two, we had a shift in the timing of our holiday program. Normally, just because of the scale of the holiday program, we actually start deliveries in August to get displays up early, just to manage the surge. As part of managing overall demand, we pushed about half of that off into Q4, there's a timing difference there. I think that for the most part, our promotional plans are back in place.
Those comments are pretty specific to the U.S. and Canada. In the rest of the world, where we really haven't been constrained by supply, promotional plans have gone forward as normal at this point.
Great. As a follow-up, you've managed to de-lever to a little over 3x net debt to EBITDA. How does that adjust your thinking on acquisitions? Obviously, there's a lot that you've got on your plate just operating the business in this environment. In the past, you've been particularly bullish on the idea of doing further deals. I'm just wondering how rich that set of opportunities looks right now and how actively you might be pursuing that and in which parts of the business.
It had been our goal to de-leverage to 3x EBITDA by the end of 2020. It looks like we're certainly there. Positive. That's a positive. We've been sticking with it. Our goals for our acquisition strategy is unchanged, which is that acquisitions support our growth strategies. We've been signaling for a while that we didn't feel that we actually had to literally get to report a 3.0 before we'd be back in the market. We would say that we're open for business in the acquisition department.
Great. Thank you very much. I'll pass it on.
Our next question comes from the line of Robert Moskow with Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, Rob. Are you there?
Hi, Mr. Moskow.
Hi, can you hear me?
Sorry about that. Yeah, that was me.
That's like the cliche of our time right now.
It's happened to many. Yeah, I agree with you, but fortunately, no dogs barking in the background. I did have just a broader question about your margin structure. You're making investments in capacity this year that will dilute your margins in fourth quarter. Then you have this big ERP program that will probably dilute margins next year. Just big picture, would you say that these investments are setting you up to become a bigger company, to service a bigger demand? If so, when do you get back to a pattern of margin expansion and benefiting from all that scale that you've put up? I guess the second part is, do you get back then to your normal pattern of margin expansion that's in your long-term algo?
That's a great question, Rob, and I'll start it. No, it's a great point. As we went into this year, obviously when we had planned the $60-ish million investment in ERP, that was gonna be dilutive to our margin. However, we need to become a bigger company, increase our scale. ERP program drives efficiencies across the organization and really allows us to grow faster and make acquisitions faster. It's hard to pin it down to one year investment and then you get back right away. Over a three to four-year period where we look at our constant currency sales growth and our margins, we see that really as our long-term guidance. One year, you're gonna have some short-term ups and downs on it. There's levers we can pull, too, from an advertising perspective, spending more or less.
CCI is a tool we've used in the past to lean into when we've had investments to make. I think in January you'll see a better picture for next year.
The investments that we've made in supply chain this year have really been extraordinary because of the extraordinary circumstances. We have had an unprecedented increase in demand that has been sustained over time that we have really had to work and almost throw money at in order to meet, and it hasn't been done in the most efficient way. I think that as we commented on the first question from Andrew, we would expect that some of those costs would come out.
You think about earlier this year, people have already forgotten the first quarter. China was such a shock to us and everybody, and the consumers there didn't get a chance to really buy.
That was a large first quarter impact for us, which really hurt our margins. Even in the Flavor Solutions business, we talked about continuing to mix up there with portfolio management. This year has been a little tough because food service, brand food service, which is high margin, has been hurt by this COVID situation, whereas QSRs are recovering. That has hurt us from a mix perspective. We see that over time recovering also.
Okay. Actually, I do have a follow-up question. You said that Europe had already expanded capacity sufficiently to meet the 20-plus% increase in demand, but the U.S. had not. Is there any reason that the capacity expanded in one region but not the other?
Well, sure. Over the last several years, we've been building our capacity and capabilities in Asia Pacific first and in Europe second as an area of investment focus. Actually, we have just turned to the Americas this year. We announced a big investment in a highly automated logistics center earlier this year pre-COVID. Our investment cycle has turned to the Americas.
It's not to say we've ignored Americas.
Yeah.
We've made investments along the way. Also, i t's a big region for us.
Right. I mean, virtually all of our plants in Asia have been either new or renovated in the last several years, and we've made a number of big investments in expansion and automation in EMEA, and we're just turning to the Americas. Even beyond that, yes, it's just the scale of the surge of demand. I mean, the U.S. business is so big that even the same percentage growth, it turns into just a massive amount of volume.
Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Our next question is from the line of Chris Growe with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning.
Morning, Chris.
Hi, good morning. My first question was just to understand, you talked earlier in the call about pushing off some new product launches and how those could benefit 2021, I think was the implication. Is that a function of the retailer sort of acceptance of new products? Are you seeing that kind of pick back up? Also just understand how the capacity lines up for some of those new products. Are these largely third-party produced, or is the new production capacity able to produce those products? I just want to get a sense of how those will play out in 2021.
Right. Well, with the surge in demand, both we and the retailers really wanted to focus on core items. For us, it was a surge in supply. I mean, retailers still had the challenge of bringing product in and just the logistics of the whole increase in consumer shopping in their total store. There's been much more of a focus on core. The new items that we actually had launched early in the year got unprecedented trial. The items that we had planned for the second half really have been deferred into 2021 and add to that pipeline. I don't think our experience in that area is much different than what others set out. We also had a big shelf initiative. We had a spice aisle reinvention program that we unveiled at CAGNY and had a plan to get into thousands of stores.
We have made that change in thousands of stores, but nowhere near to the magnitude that we expected. That's also going to be a part of the program for next year. On the flavor solution side of the business also, our customers have tended to focus on their core items as well. Innovation in that area has also been curtailed. Quick service restaurants trying to manage demand and their drive-through and takeaway model have focused more on core items and are really only now getting back into limited time offers and promotional offerings. Our consumer food manufacturing customers are also just now ramping up their innovation programs. We have a lot of projects underway in that area that I think will be a benefit in that segment next year.
Really, through the crisis, the focus has been on core items, both for us, our customers, both on Flavor Solutions and it's retail.
Some evidence of the QSRs and APZ in China and Australia are recovering faster and more LTOs are coming out now, as we talked about this quarter. We'll see that continue, hopefully, into next year.
Okay. Thank you for that. I just one quick follow-on, if I could, on the gross margin and I guess the implied gross margin for the fourth quarter. It does indicate some less growth or even a bit of a decline in the fourth quarter based on the performance year to date. Are there residual COVID costs we have to keep in mind? Is it the co-packers? Also you have some costs around the new capacity. Are those sort of the factors that play into the fourth quarter gross margin performance?
Definitely, Chris. We talked, the last call, we were talking about $30 million split between the second and third quarter. Now we're saying $40 million-$50 million, and we're considering the fourth quarter because of that unprecedented demand. Yeah, those costs are continuing into the fourth quarter.
I'd say that's the biggest factor.
Yeah, that really is. We're saying, too, a little bit, we've had some very favorable segment mix over the last couple of quarters. We're seeing a little bit less of that in the fourth quarter. The primary thing is the COVID cost, as Lawrence said.
Okay, that sounds great. Thanks for all your time this morning.
Our next question is from the line of Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your questions.
Yes, thanks. Good morning, everyone.
Morning, Adam.
Morning.
I guess the first, it sort of ties into a little bit of the question on the shift on holiday sales into the fourth quarter in terms of the load in. Can you just comment a little bit on retailer inventories and trade inventory in the U.S. right now, just given the surge in demand that we've seen? How do you think about that and how you think about that potentially being a tailwind into next year?
Yeah, I think you only have to walk into a store to know that the cupboard is bare. In the second quarter, U.S. demand was, the scanner was up 55%, in the second quarter it was at 28%, our latest IRI still has it running up over 20%. We have struggled to keep up with that demand. You've seen that we've reported lower numbers, a lot of that gap represents inventory reduction. I'd say that the shelf stocks are low, backroom stocks are low to non-existent. There's a lot to rebuild. As we go through the fourth quarter, we're ramping up capacity, but that's really meeting demand.
The real rebuild of shelf stock, of retailer safety stock, of inventory in the normal level of inventory in a trade pipeline, that rebuild is gonna happen next year, and it's gonna take well into the year to get that caught back up.
That's what gives us further confidence on growth next year on the consumer side.
Okay. No, that's helpful. I guess my second question was more on.
By the way, I don't think we're not alone in that situation.
No, that's totally fair. My other question was gonna be on Flavor Solutions and especially thinking in the Americas with the volume mix decline you reported. Any way to give a little bit more color by kind of your major categories, branded food service, the flavors business, the condiments coating, just how the different parts of your business are performing relative to that negative five and where that's trending as we move through the summer?
Yeah. Quick service restaurants are generally doing great, so they're very much in a recovery mode. Depending on the geography, in some cases, they're well into growth again, and other geographies, they're not quite there. Their model was already very oriented towards consumption away from premise, drive-through and so on. They've had a fast recovery and really are responsible for the big swing that we saw in our EMEA region in particular. For example, our second quarter down 31%, at third quarter, we're actually up 1%. The flip side of that and the slowest recovering are your traditional restaurant food service customers. Many of those are still closed or operating under capacity restrictions. Consumers in our survey data, over half of consumers still say they do not intend to eat inside at a restaurant this year. There's quite a challenging path for them to recover.
In fact, as we get into the fall weather, with cooler weather, it's hard to see how that's gonna be another headwind for them as we get into that time period. Those are the ones that are gonna be more challenged. Our consumer manufacturers are pretty much back to normal. They've pretty much gotten back on track. It varies by customer, but as a group, in aggregate, they're back to a more normal path.
In the Americas, I think you were trying to dig a little bit beyond that. I mean, branded food service is a higher percentage of our total Flavor Solutions in the Americas compared to the rest of the world. It's a little bigger impact there.
Okay. That's a really helpful color. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Mike, I just had a question around freight costs. We've been seeing a pretty sizable uptick both in the spot markets and just wondering if that's gonna spill over into contract freight rates. Just, can you give us a sense of, either as a % of sales or COGS, what freight represents and maybe just some history, a couple of years ago when freight was moving up, kind of how you guys managed it through the business?
Yeah, it's a good question. Freight has spiked real recently. It's been up and down over the last 12 months, though. A couple of years ago, there was a huge shortage of containers of freight, and the whole industry was really hurt by that. Through our CCI program, we really managed those costs. Within the last quarter, I can't tell you specifically what programs we have, to be honest. Distribution is one of those SG&A things that has been up, primarily due to internal warehousing moves and things like that, just shipping product. Your freight is a relatively minor total component of our cost of goods sold.
Especially in the scheme of.
Yeah, in the scheme of other costs.
What's going on right now.
I wouldn't think it's not a material impact in the quarter. It does add up to a little bit of a headwind. It's a good question.
Got it. Okay. No, that's helpful. Maybe just as a cleanup, the tax rate, that 20% you gave, on a longer-term basis, I know you guys kind of talk about mid-20s, but it's been running in that closer to 20%, just as the stock has performed well.
Kind of help us think about that on a longer-term basis?
Yeah, longer term is still, I'd say that what we said earlier this year, 24%-25%. Obviously, with the election coming up, we have no idea what's going to happen next year, stay tuned for that one. Underlying the way the rates, the rules are written now, 24%-25%. Periodically we have tax planning initiatives. As you said, with the stock performing very well, you get a really nice stock option favorability. Now, that is all set up in the operating expense line, just partially so that it does have a little bit of a headwind up there, but generally it's good for the tax line.
Great. Thanks very much, guys.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of David Driscoll with DD Research. Please proceed with your questions.
Great. Thank you, and good morning.
Hey there, David.
I wanted to ask one question on the fourth quarter, and then just one follow-up on your 2021 commentary. On the fourth quarter, you appear to be implying within the full year guidance a revenue slowdown versus the third quarter. I just wanted to hear your description as to what are the qualitative factors here. Do you expect a second wave of the virus to be impacting? Is that implied within the guidance, or do you really just take where we are today on viral impact and just extend that forward? Are there any other key assumptions that go into that fourth quarter? On 2021, I'm curious about whether or not you see this as your growth comments. Are these in your control? Is it this inventory situation that's just so significant in 2021 that it underpins your confidence to make these growth comments?
Of course, nobody knows about the vaccine, how many people will take it, what that will do to consumer behavior. I'm thinking that what you're trying to tell us today is it doesn't really matter. There are so many underlying positives inherent to your business that are in your control that you can still say that there would be growth in 2021 in that Consumer segment. Thank you.
I think for Q4, I'll start this and I'll let Mike take it, and let me come back to 2021 in a minute. For Flavor Solutions, we're pretty much looking at status quo versus where we are right now because the QSRs have largely recovered, and we see it's just a hard path forward for the rest of the restaurant side of the business. Given the uncertainty around resurgence, look what's happening in Europe right now.
Cold weather for restaurants.
Cold weather coming in. There's probably gonna be some good news on a vaccine, but the fact is, it's probably not gonna be widely available till sometime well in the next year. There's a lot of uncertainty out there around that. For the consumer side, demand continues to be strong. We've had all these gains in penetration, trial. Consumers seem to be having a good experience cooking at home, and that cooking at home behavior has really held up in a way that, frankly, we've underestimated all year long. It's been stronger than we thought, and every time we look at it's holding up stronger and longer than we thought. We're expecting some moderation next year, but we are also expecting quite a lot of it to stick. There are still a lot of uncertainties around 2021, which is why we don't give guidance this early.
We did see a growing disconnect between the expectations for growth on consumer that was getting to be so wide, we felt like we had to say something about it.
Yeah, regarding the fourth quarter, we wanted to give some meaningful guidance, but also we wanted to be prudent in a really uncertain environment. There's variables to the high and the low end. We think the demand is there, obviously, as we see in the scanner data, but our ability to supply, especially in the U.S., is really challenged. We wanted to at least be prudent from that perspective.
I appreciate the comments. Thank you.
Great.
Thank you. At this time, I'll turn the floor back to Lawrence Kurzius for closing comments.
Great. Thank you everyone for your questions and for participating on today's call. McCormick is a global leader in flavor, differentiated with a broad and advantaged portfolio. In the volatile environment in which we currently operate, this balanced portfolio drives consistency in our performance. We have a growing and profitable business delivering flavor to all markets and channels while responding readily to changes in the industry and the world with new ideas, innovation, and purpose. One of the most significant risks to any company is being unprepared to respond with agility to a significant unexpected disruption. We've all been experiencing that disruption this year. McCormick continued to be well prepared to not only manage through it, but emerge stronger. With a relentless focus on growth, performance, and people, we're confident our strategies continue to position us to drive future growth and build long-term value for our shareholders.
Thank you, Lawrence, and thanks to everyone for joining today's call. If you have any further questions regarding today's information, please reach out to me. This now concludes this morning's conference call. Have a good day, everyone.