Fresh & Easy stores, the retail grocery store owned by U.K's Tesco PLC, is up for sale to the highest bidder after Tesco announced that it would end its operations in U.S.
The small self-serve mart had a tough 2007 debut just before the recession, and it struggled in the U.S. grocery market, competing with larger, more established stores like Costco, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods.
Tesco planned 17 stores in the Sacramento area but never got beyond the five that opened last spring. The company opened a total of 200 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada over the past few years.
"There are no plans to close any portion of Fresh & Easy," said a company news release.
This latest development follows a December announcement that the chain might sell or close its U.S. stores, noting that "Fresh & Easy will not deliver acceptable shareholder returns ... in its current form."
The supermarket group booked a loss of $1.8 billion for the U.S. misadventure, which helped send net profit for the year down 96 percent to $183 million, said an Associated Press report.
"While we don't yet know who will ultimately own Fresh & Easy, Tesco has already received interest from a number of parties including groups looking to purchase Fresh & Easy as an operating business," the news release said. "We're confident we can serve our neighbors for many years to come."
Yet the most serious competition has been big-store grocers such as Wal-Mart, whose success has disrupted labor relations at the unionized grocers and was a big factor in the 10-day strike at Raley's in November.
