Tesco puts brakes on U.S. rollout

Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:57pm BST

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LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco (TSCO.L) has halted the rollout of Fresh & Easy, its chain of U.S. convenience stores, while it reviews the performance of the startup business, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The newspaper said Tesco called a three-month halt to the expansion of Fresh & Easy last week, after opening almost 60 stores since last autumn, citing a company blog posted by Fresh & Easy marketing director Simon Uwins.

No one was available for comment at Tesco.

Finance and Strategy Director Andrew Higginson said in January that customer response to Tesco's newest expansion in the United States was "very encouraging".

(Reporting by Tom Bergin; editing by Sue Thomas)

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