Tesco to sell business in Japan
Tesco has announced plans to sell its business in Japan after concluding that it could not build a sufficiently scalable business in the country.
Philip Clarke, Tesco CEO said: ” We have decided to sell our operations there and focus on our larger businesses in the region, in line with our priority of driving growth and improving returns. I want to thank our colleagues in Japan for their continued dedication to the business.
“With good stores in good locations across Greater Tokyo, we will be undertaking a formal sale process over the coming months and the business will continue to trade as usual in the meantime.”
Japan is the smallest of Tesco’s international retail businesses. The company operates 129 small stores in the Greater Tokyo area under the Tsurakame, Tesco and Tesco Express formats.
Over half of the stores are profitable and Tesco has also developed a strong own label range and a fresh kitchen to supply fish and other products to its stores.
Tesco first entered the Japanese market in 2003 when it purchased the C Two-Network for £139 million.
