New York (CNN Business) Starbucks has put several plans in place to accelerate growth, and they all seem to be working.

The company is aggressively opening restaurants, improving its technology, developing new products, and expanding its rewards program. The tactics are paying off: Sales at cafes open at least a year grew 6% globally in the third quarter, Starbucks announced Thursday. Net sales grew 8.1% to an all-time high of $6.8 billion.

Because of the successful quarter, Starbucks improved its financial outlook for the year.

Last year, CEO Kevin Johnson set out a number of strategic priorities to achieve "growth at scale."

One strategy is adding more stores: In the third quarter, the company opened 442 net new stores, one third of them in China. It opened its 30,000th store this year, and closed out the quarter with over 30,600 stores.

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