Matthew Farrell
President, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman at Church & Dwight
Okay. Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. We've got lots to talk about. I'm going to begin with a review of Q3 results. Then I'll turn the call over to Rick Dierker, our CFO. And when Rick is done, we'll open the call for questions.
First off, I'll say, we revised our full year revenue outlook in early September and we're tracking to hit 3% which was the midpoint of our 2% to 4% range at that time. In Q3, reported revenue was up 0.4% and that exceeded our expectation of minus 1%. As you read in the release, while the majority of our brands are performing well. We have 3 businesses that are coloring our results this year. And those are WATERPIK, our vitamin business and FLAWLESS. And those businesses account for -- accounted for a 6% sales headwind in Q3.
Adjusted EPS was $0.76. Now this was $0.11 higher than our EPS outlook, driven by higher international sales, lower SG&A and timing of marketing spend. The U.S. portfolio grew consumption in 11 of 17 categories. The trade down to value laundry detergent continued as ARM & HAMMER liquid detergent achieved an all-time high market share of 14.3%. The ARM & HAMMER clumping litter, BATISTE dry shampoo and THERABREATH mouthwash also achieved all-time high market shares. TROJAN condoms returned to share growth and OXICLEAN stain fighters and ARM & HAMMER baking soda delivered double-digit consumption growth.
The strong performance of these businesses is offsetting the impact of the discretionary businesses and vitamins on reported sales. In Q3, our most discretionary brands, WATERPIK and FLAWLESS which account for approximately 10% of our global sales were impacted by lower customer spending. Similarly, the gummy vitamin category, in which our VITAFUSION brand competes, was impacted by a decline in consumption as fewer households purchased vitamins and supplements and we were also lapping the COVID Delta variant in the prior year quarter.
In Q3, online sales as a percentage of total sales was 15% and we continue to expect online sales for the full year to be above 15%. Now I'm going to comment on each business. First up is the U.S. U.S. consumer which had 1.7% organic sales decline. Looking at market share, 7 of our 14 power brands held or gained share. Looking ahead, we expect even further improvement in our market share positions in Q4 as we expect our highest fill rates of the year and our highest quarterly promotional and marketing spend.
I want to look at a few of the important categories in the U.S. and I want to start with laundry. The trade down to value detergent which began in Q2 continued in Q3. During Q3, the liquid laundry category grew 3.1%. Now if we break that down, value laundry detergent grew 9%, premium declined 3%. ARM & HAMMER unit dose also benefited from the trade down. Our ARM & HAMMER pods grew consumption by 25% in the quarter compared to unit dose category growth of 4.5%. With more consumers migrating to ARM & HAMMER, the long-term benefit to the ARM & HAMMER brand similar to the last recession.
In litter, the category grew 11%, while ARM & HAMMER litter grew 14%, so we gained share in the quarter. Both our black box which is premium and our yellow box which is value, had double-digit consumption growth in Q3. In stain fighters, OXICLEAN gained share as consumption was up 10%, while the category grew 7%. The dry shampoo category was up 18% in Q3, driven by BATISTE consumption which was up 37% and we now enjoy a 46% market share in dry shampoo. The condom category was up 3.5% in Q3, while TROJAN consumption was up 4.5%. So again, we gained 60 basis points of market share, thanks to our new TROJAN BARESKIN RAW condom and the success of more targeted marketing.
Our most recent acquisitions are performing well. THERABREATH which we acquired in December of 2021, had a great quarter with 46% consumption growth. THERABREATH grew share of 4.3 points to 17.8% of the alcohol-free mouthwash category. THERABREATH is the number 2 nonalcohol mouthwash and the clear number 4 brand in total mouthwash. THERABREATH is expected to be a long-term grower for Church & Dwight in the future. ZICAM also delivered strong results this quarter. You may recall, we acquired ZICAM in December of 2020. ZICAM is the number 1 brand in the cold shortening segment with a 76% share in Q3.
Now looking ahead to Q4, the regular flu season in the U.S. is projected to be far more severe than recent years. And as a reminder, approximately 40% of ZICAM consumption happens in Q4. We closed on our latest acquisition, Hero, in mid-October. Now while we did that own Hero in Q3, the brand performed extremely well, growing consumption 56% and gaining 3.6 share points to achieve a 14% market share in the total acne treatments category. There's a great deal of excitement here about this business as we look ahead to 2023 and longer term.
All right, next up is International. Our international business delivered organic growth of 3.2% in Q3, primarily driven by the international subsidiaries which posted strong growth in the quarter. On the other hand, our Global Markets Group has been impacted by weakening demand in China due to lockdowns and we expect this to continue in Q4.
Finally, Specialty Products. Our Specialty Products business delivered 1% organic growth in the quarter. But keep in mind that the 1% organic growth is on top of 18.5% organic growth in Q3 2021. Now I want to spend a couple of minutes discussing our 2 discretionary brands, WATERPIK and FLAWLESS which have longer purchase cycles. And after that, I'll talk about the vitamin business. First, WATERPIK. So WATERPIK is the number 1 brand in water flossers. We continue to see lower dollar consumption for water flossers in the U.S. However, WATERPIK unit volumes are actually positive both in Q3 and year-to-date as consumers trade down to lower-priced cordless models.
If we look back at 2021 and 2020, the consumer was healthier and a good portion of our growth came from our super premium products like Sonic-Fusion. In 2022, the decline in our flosser sales is driven by trade down and inventory reductions by retailers. Shipments for full year 2022 are expected to decline approximately 20% as retailers reset their inventories and product mix. We continue to invest in demand-driving activities for WATERPIK, such as Lunch & Learns with dentists and hygienists to drive household penetration of flossers. And in 2023, next year, we expect to return to pre-pandemic levels for Lunch & Learns.
Now remember, WATERPIK is the Kleenex of water flossers and 9 out of 10 dentists recommend the product by its brand name. This is extremely important as 60% of consumer purchases are driven by a recommendation from a dental professional. It's fair to say that gum health is not going away and still only 16% of the U.S. population flosses every day.
Now looking back, WATERPIK averaged high single-digit top line growth from 2017 when we acquired the business through 2021. So we're taking a big step back in 2022 but we're confident that the long-term growth prospects for WATERPIK are sound.
Now the other discretionary brand we have is FLAWLESS which is the number 1 brand in women's health hair removal. We're experiencing lower consumption in this category which resulted in higher inventories at retail. Our share has been further hurt by the delay in launching new products caused by the China lockdowns at our supplier.
After the conclusion of a 30-month earn-out period which ended in 2021, our marketing team took over the front end of the business and has been narrowing the product assortment to the winners. So if you're familiar with the brand, that's Face, Brow, Mani and Pedi. And we're also shifting the focus from older consumers to digital targeting of younger consumers in the beauty space. Now we believe these changes will have a positive impact on the long-term prospects for the business.
Now finally, over in VMS, we have the number 1 adult gummy vitamin. Category consumption is being impacted as temporary consumers who were interested in prevention during COVID times have exited the category. Beyond category dynamics, the VITAFUSION brand has also lost some share due to our lower fill rates, particularly earlier in the year. It's clear that fewer households are purchasing vitamins and supplements post COVID and the category is being impacted by the recession. So here are some stats. For the last 3 quarters, the category growth rate has been plus 10% in Q1, plus 5% in Q2 and most recently minus 8% in Q3. Now the minus 8% compares to a plus 33% increase in the category in Q3 2021.
And there is some good news here. In the first few weeks of October, the rate of category decline has moderated to minus 4%. And longer term, the transition from pills and capsules to gummy vitamins gives us confidence in the long-term appeal of the gummy category.
And I'll conclude with a few takeaways that I'd like to leave you with. The majority of our business is strong. We believe the 3 brands that are coloring our numbers have good, long-term prospects. Case fill is now over 90% and improving. We've ramped up our marketing and trade promotion investment in the second half, especially in Q4 and we have confidence in our Q4 outlook.
Now, I'm going to turn it over to Rick to give you more details on Q3.
