The 61 Fresh & Easy stores, which launched with a functional design and basic layout, will be given more color and signage. The overhaul is in response to shopper feedback, Retail Week said.[image-nocss]
Tesco corporate and legal affairs director Lucy Neville-Rolfe told the U.K. publication that consumers' reaction to Fresh & Easy has been "very strong" and confirmed the shop improvements. She said, "We've been working on brighter stores, better ranging, signagethe sort of things we always do when we move into a new market."
The grocer, which opened its first Fresh & Easy store in November last year, paused expansion in April to assess the format. As part of the refresh, which will be completed by July, further signage will be added to popular products. A Tesco spokesperson told Retail Week that the design has been "tweaked" and, while it will maintain its clean look and feel, the changes should help shoppers "dash in and find the milk or whatever other products they want to find quickly and easily."
The grocer has also added a further 250 products to its own-label line, including new ready meals and juices, and the stores now also take American Express cards, said the report.
Meanwhile, the retailer has added company veteran Jeff Adams to El Segundo, Calif.-based Fresh & Easy's management team from Tesco's operations in Thailand. Mason told the Financial Times that Fresh & Easy was thriving, in spite of suggestions of poor early results. He said the decision to bring in U.S.-born Jeff Adams as an operations director was about preparing for the future, rather than a signal that the new business was struggling. "We have always known we will need more executive vice presidents in operations because this country is so big that as soon as we go into a new geography, we will need someone to run it, so we have brought him in a little early," Mason told the paper, adding that rumors he was returning to the U.K. were a "complete fabrication."
Mason hinted that Adams would be deployed to another part of the United Statesmost likely to Chicago and the Midwestonce the chain reaches critical mass in California, Nevada and Arizona, the report said.
Expansion would require more investment than the $1.25 billion earmarked for the five-year West Coast project. Asked whether Tesco was ruling out a move beyond the West Coast until after 2012, Mason said: "I wouldn't say that. We wouldn't do anything else until we have explained how we are doing here."
Mason, who unnerved investors and analysts when he "paused" the store roll-out program in March for three months, admitted that the break "hadn't always been planned," but said he was "surprised that everyone went mental" on news of the three-month break, he told the paper. "I was critical of myself, really, because you ought to see these things coming. I felt that it was just so obviously the right thing to do having opened 60 stores," said the executive on his first public store tour since launch.
And Supermarket News has reported that new stores will resume opening July 2 when a Fresh & Easy store debuts in Manhattan Beach, near Los Angeles, the leading edge of a torrent of 140 new stores to open between July and February.
Separately, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has indicated that its new Marketside smaller-format grocery stores will be built around a "premium" rather than low-cost offering, suggesting its new small format stores will be less focused on price than Fresh & Easy, reported the Financial Times. The stores will be the first new banner launched by Wal-Mart in a decade and mark a radical departure for a retailer that has built its business around its giant "Supercenter" concept and an "everyday low price" strategy.
This discount pricing strategy has been especially successful during the US economic downturn.
Job advertisements for the new Wal-Mart business say the stores will deliver "unique solutions for time-starved consumers in a premium fresh/convenience oriented format"an indication of the pricing position of the new 15,000-square-foot stores.
Wal-Mart has already indicated that the stores will be focused on delivering "meal solutions."
Store-planning documents indicate that food will be prepared and served on the premises, in contrast to the minimalist utilitarian approach of Tesco's hard discount Fresh & Easy stores, said the report.
Marketside's job advertisements also say that the new stores will include a private-label assortment, indicating that the retailer is developing new private-label brands exclusively for the small stores rather than relying on its existing Wal-Mart "Great Value" discount brand, the report added.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.