World's largest retailer of office products has just given investors a reason to celebrate by reporting that the company's earnings for the current fiscal year's third quarter hiked by a whopping 72% on the back acquisitions and tax charges. Also, for the first time in 2 long years, the retailer recorded a rise in North America customer traffic.

For the current financial year's quarter till October 31, Staples revealed earnings of $269.4 Million, or 37 cents per share, a substantial rise from the figure of $156.7 Million, or 22 cents per share, posted for the same period last year. Excluding acquisition and other charges, earnings fell to 39 cents from 42 cents.

Revenue, however, did record a 6.2% fall to $6.52 Billion.

The profit figures posted for the third-quarter have managed to beat the estimate pegged by analysts who estimated earnings of 38 cents a share on $6.45 billion in revenue.

Staples' retail revenue for North America, which accounts for about 40% of the company's total sales, hiked by 1%. Existing customers, however, had spent less for the period, leading to delivery revenues for the region record an 11% decline.

So far this year, Staples shares have surged by as much as 30%, and are currently trading at $23.32, as of yesterday's closing figure.