Feb. 12--Tully's Coffee reported a net loss of $600,000 for the third quarter, shrinking 75 percent from a $2.4 million loss last year.

During the last nine months of 2008, the Seattle chain opened 28 new stores, including its first two outlets in Singapore through a joint venture. At year-end, it had 165 U.S. stores.

Retail sales fell 19.4 percent during the third quarter, partly because of bad weather in Seattle and a Boeing strike that temporarily closed a plant in which Tully's sells coffee. Sales at stores open at least a year dropped 14 percent.

Tully's has scheduled a special meeting March 16 for shareholders to vote on the proposed sale of its wholesale business to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of Vermont for $40.3 million.

If shareholders do not approve the vote, Tully's has said in securities filings, it could go out of business.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com

-----

To see more of The Seattle Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.seattletimes.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, Seattle Times

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NASDAQ-NMS:TULY, NYSE:BA, NASDAQ-NMS:GMCR,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.