BEIJING, Feb. 2 -- Starbucks Corp said its fiscal first-quarter profit climbed nearly 18 percent on a record number of store openings and ramped-up breakfast and lunch offerings.

    Investors appeared to shrug off concerns about costs, particularly in raises for North American retail employees, and pushed the stock slightly higher in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

    For the 13 weeks ended on December 31, Starbucks posted net earnings of US$205 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with US$174 million, or 22 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.

    Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting profit of US$202.6 million.

    The Seattle-based company said comparable-store sales, those at stores open at least a year, grew six percent for the quarter, which includes the holiday sales period.

    Starbucks also said it opened 728 retail stores, a quarterly record, and it reaffirmed its fiscal-year target of at least 2,400 more stores around the world.

    "The record number of store openings during the period puts our aggressive 2007 store opening target well within reach," company President and Chief Executive Jim Donald said in a statement.

    Starbucks' net revenue for the quarter was about US$2.35 billion, in line with analysts' estimates and up from US$1.9 billion in the prior year's quarter.

    "It was an in-line quarter overall - with some moving parts," particularly on costs, said Analyst Dan Geiman with McAdams Wright Ragen.

    Retail operating expenses as a percentage of sales were up slightly from the year-ago period, mostly due to an hourly wage increase for retail employees in the United States and Canada.

    In a conference call with analysts, Chief Financial Officer Michael Casey said the raises were mostly covered during the first quarter by an October increase in Starbucks' retail coffee prices.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)