Tesco , the world's No.3 retailer, will test a handful of smaller convenience stores in the United States as it searches for ways to stem losses at its Fresh & Easy chain.
The British supermarket group said on Wednesday the new stores, to be called Fresh & Easy Express, would be around 3,000 square feet in size, compared with the 10,000 square feet of one of its typical U.S. stores.
The move will help the West Coast chain reach into urban areas where sites have been hard to find, and follows similar experiments by other major retailers, such as U.S. market leader Wal-Mart , as they look to tap demand for local shopping amid rising fuel prices.
Fresh & Easy racked up 186 million pounds ($305 million) of losses in the year ended February, more than analysts' expected and putting a question mark over Tesco's goal, launched in 2007, to conquer the U.S. with discounter-style neighbourhood stores.
New Chief Executive Phil Clarke has pledged a significant reduction in losses this year and that the chain will break even towards the end of the 2012-13 financial year.
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