CHESHUNT, England — Tesco officials said yesterday that the company is encouraged enough by the sales trajectory of its U.S. business to accelerate the opening of a distribution center in Northern California. In a conference call discussing its earnings results for the fiscal year, Tesco said Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets are exceeding sales of $20 per square foot per week at the chain’s best locations. Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive officer, said in an interview published on Tesco's webiste that the company is very positive about the performance of most of its 61 U.S. stores. “They're performing ahead of budget,” Leahy said, “and more importantly, customers love [them], and we're getting the best feedback we have ever had from any format we've opened anywhere. We're already ahead of the average sales per square foot of the American supermarket industry” — which he estimated at $9 to $10 per square foot per week — “and growth is progressing well week on week. And indeed we're so encouraged that we're trying to accelerate the program by bringing forward an investment in Northern California.” Leahy said the U.S. stores are operating at a loss, “and losses will be slightly up in the [current] year." The company did not break out Fresh & Easy sales when it met with analysts to discuss financial reports for the fiscal year. However, Andrew T. Higginson, finance and strategy director, said Tesco expects Fresh & Easy losses for the current year to be around $196.1 million (100 million British pounds) “as we continue to build our store network and accelerate the opening of our second distribution center in Northern California.”
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