The news came as Tesco unveiled interim pre-tax profits up 14.3 per cent to£1.32 billion, although UK sales were hit by miserable weather.
The five US shops will open in the first two weeks of November in four cities: San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Tesco’s debut will be one of the biggest events in the retail year on both sides of the Atlantic.
Retail Week learned that Tesco’s property team has been scouting in San Francisco and the Californian state capital of Sacramento. Tesco has official plans to open 50 US stores before the end of its financial year in February, but a Tesco spokesman said it could open “hundreds” from its massive distribution centre in LA.
Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said Fresh & Easy would not launch in a blaze of publicity. “We are concentrating on local networking around the stores. It is relatively low key in that sense,” he said.
Closer to home, Leahy revealed that Tesco plans to launch another dedicated dot.com store in Kent, to serve online customers, following a trial in Croydon, South London. “We would tend to put capacity into the south of England, because that is where we have more dot.com customers and it is difficult to extend stores,” he said.
UK sales increased 5.4 per cent to£18.3 billion, but like-for-like growth slowed to 3.5 per cent, excluding petrol, which Leahy said was down to the awful summer weather.
Fresh & Easy’s top team
Tim Mason: chief executive
Simon Uwins: marketing director
Remco Waller: chief financial officer
Hugh Cousins: HR director
Mark Champagne: distribution director
Brian Pugh: operations director
Tony Eggs: property director
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