STARBUCKS’ SALES PERCOLATE TO 4% INCREASE FOR YEAR

TTLE» A jump in U.S. sales

SE A helped Starbucks end its fiscal year on a high note.

Starbucks Corp. said samestore sales — a critical measure for retailers — rose 4 percent in the U.S. in its fiscal fourth quarter.

That helped global samestore sales rise 3 percent, ahead of analysts’ expectations, according to FactSet.

Samestore sales rose 1 percent in China, another critical market for the company and an improvement from the prior quarter.

Starbucks shares rose sharply in afterhours trading.

Seattlebased Starbucks said its U.S. customers spent more during the quarter, partly because of a price increase for brewed coffee the company announced in June.

Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer said beverage sales were responsible for most of the increase in U.S. samestores sales. Starbucks saw stronger sales of cold drinks, such as its line of fruity Refreshers. A bigger social media effort for Starbucks’ popular Pumpkin Spice Latte also paid off, Brewer said.

Brewer said a new effort to decrease the amount of time employees spend on administrative tasks so they can spend more time handling customers is increasing customer satisfaction and return visits. The company saw a 15 percent increase in the number of U.S. loyalty program members during the JulySeptember period, up to 15.3 million.

Starbucks reported net income of $755.8 million for the quarter, for a profit of 56 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for nonrecurring costs, were 62 cents per share.

That beat Wall Street’s expectations.