BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Starbucks Corp. on Wednesday posted its first quarterly net loss since it went public in 1992.

    The coffee-chain company showed a loss of 6.7 million U.S. dollars, or 1 U.S. cent per share, compared to a profit of 158.3 million dollars, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier.

    Closure of 600 underperforming stores and its business turnaround led Starbucks to post a loss for its fiscal third quarter.

    Starbucks reported an earnings of 16 cents per share once the costs for restructuring and closing stores are excluded. It said revenue rose 2.36 billion dollars 9 percent to 2.57 billion, or 9 percent, in the third quarter of 2007.

    Most of the increase was due to sales at the company's international locations and at newer stores in the United States. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open for at least one year, fell in the mid-single-digits in the United States.

    Starbucks said the loss was a "slight deceleration" from the second quarter, when it also reported a "mid-single-digit" decline in same-store sales in the United States.

    Although sales rose overall internationally, Starbucks said sales growth dipped in Canada and traffic was down in Britain. Analysts and investors had largely been expecting sliding traffic in Britain, where consumer confidence in the economy has suffered.

    (Agencies)