Seattle, Washington  - The world's largest coffeehouse chain Starbucks delivered earnings of 152 million dollars for the second quarter, easily beating Wall Street expectations, the Seattle-based company reported Tuesday.

In the April-June period of 2008, Starbucks swallowed a loss of 7 million dollars.

Revenue in the latest quarter was off nearly 7 per cent to 2.4 billion dollars.

After many years of rapid expansion, Starbucks has lately closed hundreds of its underperforming stores and reduced its workforce in attempt to regain solid profitability. (doa)