Starbucks has said its “busiest holiday season ever” has helped the group to achieve record sales of $3.8bn(£2.41bn) during its first-quarter results for 2013.

The global coffee shop chain, which positioned fourth on British Baker’s BB75 list of top bakery firms, published its first-quarter fiscal results 2013 for the 13-week period to 30 December 2012.

The company, which came under fire last year for its UK tax practices, revealed an 11% growth in total net revenue to $3.8bn (£2.41bn) during the period, the same time the company opened 212 net new stores globally including its first three stores in India.

For Starbucks’ Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) region, sales increased by 1% to $306.1m (£194.2m) during the quarter compared to last year. The firm said this was driven by a 41% rise in revenue at licensed stores, which Starbucks said was “nearly offset by a decline in company-operated revenue as a result of recent store portfolio optimisation activities, including the sale of the Ireland store portfolio and UK airport locations to licensed partners, as well as the closure of underperforming stores in the UK”.

EMEA operating income in Q1 FY13 increased by 18% to $22.3m (£14.1m), compared to $18.9m (£12m) for the same period a year ago.

Howard Schultz, chief executive of the Starbucks Coffee Company, said: “Starbucks strong performance in Q1 demonstrates the strength, and unique resilience, of our increasingly global business, and the power and growing relevance of the brand to consumers and communities all around the world.”

Troy Alstead, chief financial officer, said: “Record earnings in the first quarter continued our strong momentum, reflecting the underlying strength in our core business. We delivered excellent holiday results with 6% global comps, marking the 12th consecutive quarter of comps in excess of 5%.

“Despite significant and unexpected cost pressures in the quarter, we achieved our earnings growth target and delivered record earnings per share. Starbucks strong Q1 performance reaffirms our confidence in the aggressive FY13 growth targets we announced in early November. The quality and diversity of growth drivers in the business, combined with our continued focus on operational excellence, gives us confidence in sustainable, strong profitable growth.”

Read British Baker’s special report, The reputation conundrum, on how the Starbucks UK brand coped with backlash on social media sites following news the firm had only paid £8.6m in taxes on its UK sales since 1998.

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