The Call of Caffeine

By Tim Beyers
The Motley Fool

You brew coffee and tea for a living. Your customers are unusually loyal, and your revenue growth shows it. In fact, you just reported sales were up 20% from last year while net income was 13% higher from the prior quarter. Who are you? Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX)? Nope. How about Diedrich Coffee (Nasdaq: DDRX)? Sorry. Better luck next time.

Those stellar numbers were put up by Peet's Coffee & Tea (Nasdaq: PEET). The purveyor of all things caffeinated yesterday reported third-quarter sales of $34.5 million and net income of $2 million. Year-to-date sales passed the $100 million mark, with roughly 70% coming from its retail stores, most of which are in California. Per-share earnings were a steamy $0.14 per share, although the company said $0.02 could be attributed to lower than expected costs for settling a class action lawsuit.

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