Colin Smith, the former Tesco executive who led the U.S. research project in 2004 and 2005, has revealed for the first time what Leahy had in mind when he backed a $2 billion, five-year plan to "conquer" the United States. "It was his idea to have 10,000 small convenience stores on every [image-nocss] junction, in every major city in the USA," Smith told the newspaper.
Leahy "had given it a lot of thought" and "had obviously been formulating this plan for some time", he added.
Tesco's only pledge on the rollout of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Inc. stores was to have 200 outlets by the end of 2009, said the report. To date, it has opened 168, and this month it expanded into northern California, a new market for the retailer.
(Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage of El Segundo, Calif.-based Fresh & Easy.)
But three years after Tesco opened its first store in Los Angeles, what was meant to be Leahy's masterstroke is still hanging in the balance, the Times said. The U.S. recession, among other factors, has left the convenience chain behind its targets.
Leahy insists Fresh & Easy will be successful, however, and is adamant that his protege Philip Clarke, who will take over as CEO when he retires in March, will press on with the U.S. strategy.
"I don't think he will close Fresh & Easy. I think that business is going to be a big success," said Sir Terry told the paper.
Clarke, however, has broken rank with his boss and refused to give the chain his unequivocal backing. "I am not going to be drawn on what is going to happen when I am chief executive because I need the chanceas I've said to you beforeto go and look," Clarke, who has not visited Fresh & Easy since early 2008, told the Times.
He said he wanted the opportunity to "make up his own mind" after seeing the business "up close and personal."
Clarke added, "I look at the plans and the plans are persuasive. But...there is a big shift required if we are not to get to your doomsday scenario and a billion [pounds] of accumulated losses. Now, the plan doesn't say that, so deliver the plan."
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