Caribou Coffee Inc. saw significant increases from coffeehouse sales, commercial sales and franchise, which helped pushed its third-quarter earnings up by 11.2 percent.

The Brooklyn Center, Minnesota-based specialty coffee and expresso retailer reported a net income of $1.8 million ($0.09 per share), up from $1.6 million ($0.08 per share) in the same three-month period last year.

We are extremely pleased with our third quarter performance, not only from a financial standpoint, but through the strategic execution that drives those results and builds our brand, Michael Tattersfield, president and CEO of Caribou, said in a release.

Our multi-channel business model is the catalyst of our success and is driving synergistic benefits across our company. We're also excited that we have activated another growth lever and opened three company owned stores in the quarter, our first openings in over three years.

Net sales grew $11.2 million to $81.4 million, which was a 16.1-percent increase from last year's third quarter.

Three elements drove net sales' increase. Coffee house sales grew 3.7 percent to $58.7 million. That was largely the help of a 4.1 percent increase in identical-store sales, which was primarily due to more food options from the company, like breakfast sandwiches and grilled cheese lunch sandwiches.

Commercial sales were up an astounding 75.5 percent to $19.8 million in the third quarter, driven by sales from customers in the company's grocery channel and sales in Keurig single-serve coffee.

And franchise sales were upped by 30.3 percent to $3 million in the third quarter, fueled by growth in product sales and royalties from 150 franchise locations. The 150 franchise locations marked a net increase of 24 locations from the prior year.

In the third quarter, Caribou netted three franchise openings.

Coffee Marketing