“This is a launch, not a trial”. That was the message from Tesco’s Tim Mason, chief executive of the grocer’s start-up Fresh & Easy US chain, as he showed off his first stores to analysts this week.

It was big talk and in keeping with the audacity of entering the world’s most competitive retail market. But it was also evidence of Tesco’s confidence that Californian shoppers will gobble up its foods with the same enthusiasm as their counterparts on this side of the pond.

There have been a few opening blips. Some shelves have emptied and not been restocked fast enough. Assuming – and there’s no reason to think otherwise – that was just one of the glitches that inevitably affects launches, all the signs for Fresh & Easy look good.

The openings come after exhaustive research by the famously paranoid grocer. Mason would not have made such forthright comments, nor would group chief executive Sir Terry Leahy have so closely identified himself with the venture, were they not convinced of its likely success.

Early analysts’ impressions back the Tesco leadership’s bull view. US brokers have raised some quibbles, but written enthusiastically on the sharpness and quality of the offer and efficiency of the model.

As notes filter back from British analysts visiting Fresh & Easy, their early opinion was also positive. Investors are salivating at the potential to create a US division as big as Tesco’s entire existing business.

There’s a long way to go before that, but Tesco is one of the UK’s greatest contemporary retail successes and has proved its international credentials. Investors may get carried away on what still remains just an opportunity but, on past form, Tesco’s US enterprise should bring home the bacon.

Asos star is in the ascendant

AIM-listed fashion e-tailer Asos has been one of the year’s share price stars, up more than 60 per cent.

Asos posts interims next week and expectations are high. Talk that H&M might bid for it seems to have been wide of the mark, but there are plenty of reasons why the e-tailer should do well on its own: a growing online market, a strong business model and rising sales are just three.

Likely full-year profits will be comparatively small at just north of£5 million, but Asos looks likely to continue its ascent and become a star of the future.

George MacDonald is deputy editor of Retail Week