LONDON -- British supermarket group Tesco said that its U.S. expansion plans are on track, despite growing speculation that the initial performance of its new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets discount grocery/convenience stores have fallen short of expectations, reported The Financial Times.
The company is rebutting comments—as reported in CSP Daily News yesterday—by U.S. brokerage firm Piper Jaffray & Co. and others that sales are far short of the target and the stores need an urgent overhaul.
Piper Jaffray analyst Mike Dennis—who is based in the U.K.&[image-nocss] mdash;said: "The Fresh & Easy concept is not right and they need to quickly find out what the issues are and reset the concept."
There have been widespread anecdotal reports in the United States that the Fresh & Easy stores have been failing to attract customers at the rate needed, the newspaper said.
A Tesco spokesperson said in a statement cited by the Financial Times that the stores were "proving very popular," adding that "what we are seeing is growing sales, growing customer numbers."
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