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Tesco Heads To US Again With F&F Fashion Brand

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  • Tesco Heads To US Again With F&F Fashion Brand

    TESCO HEADS TO US AGAIN WITH F&F FASHION BRAND

    Struggling supermarket returns to America, where it wrote off more
    than £1bn on failed Fresh & Easy convenience stores a year ago

    Tesco's last American venture, Fresh & Easy, was a £1bn failure
    Photo: Alamy

    By Christopher Williams

    5:57PM BST 14 Apr 2014

    Tesco will attempt again to gain a foothold in the American retail
    market, this time as a fashion brand owner, a year after it was forced
    to abandon its loss-making Fresh & Easy chain of convenience stores
    in California.

    The struggling supermarket giant will team up Retail Group of America,
    which runs American Accessorize and Monsoon franchises, to introduce
    its F&F range of clothes to American shoppers.

    The pair have agreed to open a chain of seven F&F stores on the
    east coast this year, beginning in Boston next month. Locations
    in shopping malls in New York, Philadelphia and Newport, Virginia,
    are also planned.

    F&F's entry into the world's largest retail market is the biggest test
    yet of Tesco's plan to establish the brand globally. Established in
    2001 as an answer to Asda's George range, last year Tesco announced
    standalone F&F stores would open in the Middle East, Armenia,
    Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan. The brand now has franchises in
    10 countries.

    Tesco's return to the United States was announced as the company
    prepared to detail its problems on home turf at its annual results
    on Wednesday. Analysts expect the challenge to Tesco's core business
    from budget supermarkets Aldi and Lidl to weigh heavily on group
    profits and add to pressure on chief executive Phil Clarke.

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    The international expansion of F&F is one of several diversification
    tactics Tesco is using in an attempt to soften the blows to its
    main business.

    Mr Clarke will hope his fashion brand will enjoy more success in
    the United States than Fresh & Easy, which Tesco backed for six
    years before giving up on the attempt to convince Americans to buy
    their groceries at smaller stores. It wrote off more than £1bn on
    the failed venture and in September sold it to Yucaipa Companies,
    the billionaire Ron Burkle's private equity group.

    Jason Tarry, chief executive of F&F, said: "We've had a really positive
    response from customers in all of our overseas markets so we're hoping
    our American stores prove to be just as popular."

    Retail Group of America is owned by the Saudi conglomerate Fawaz
    Al Hokair & Co, which also runs runs international franchises for
    an array of brands including Costa Coffee and has is involved in a
    joint venture with Burberry, among others.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10766026/Tesco-heads-to-US-again-with-FandF-fashion-brand.html



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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