Tesco To Close Fresh & Easy Stores

U.K.-based Tesco PLC, in its Interim Results 2010/2011, indicated that although its Fresh & Easy stores in the U.S. have made good progress with sales growth and improvements in store operating ratios during the first half of the year, the company plans to mothball 13 stores. Six are in Nevada, six in Arizona and one in inland California. The company indicated that the expected population growth in these neighborhoods never happened. "We'll re-open these stores when the housing and employment markets pick up," the company indicated in its report. "We expect to open 19 new stores in the second half of the year with a continued focus on areas where the local economy has been less severely hit and where we are seeing substantially stronger sales performance. Thereafter, we plan to increase the pace of store openings, helped by the strong pipeline of new sites we already have in place."