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Retail Top 100 2012, No. 91: Tesco

May 10, 2012

CEO Phillip Clarke is confident about the future of Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market because of the enthusiasm and loyalty of its customer base, despite the company's decision to shutter 13 underperforming units. "The key components are coming together," Clarke says, for Fresh & Easy to achieve profitability in 2012 or 2013, by which time Tesco expects to be operating close to 400 U.S. stores. For the six-month period that ended Aug. 31, 2011, Tesco's U.S. division, which then encompassed 159 stores, lost $151 million, while sales rose 47 percent to $392.7 million and same-store sales rose approximately 10 percent. The chain experienced additional losses, due to costs related to its acquisition of two suppliers, and increased rent from unopened stores.

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