Can Tesco crack the US?

Can the great British retailer succeed where others have failed and crack the American market? Tim Bennett investigates.

Last week to much fanfare Tesco (TSCO) crossed the Atlantic, opening six new stores under the "Fresh and Easy" brand name in California. The supermarket aims to open another 50 stores within the next six months, then have 800 up and running by 2012. Sales from the US are expected to be £6.9bn within five years. But can Tesco succeed where so many others have failed?

As retail analyst Neil Saunders of Verdict Research puts it, the US is known as "a graveyard for British retailers". The list of firms that have crashed and burned there reads like a who's who of UK retail; Laura Ashley (ALY) (sold its US unit for just $1), WH Smith (SMWH) (losses of $50m) and Body Shop (whose US adventures nearly bankrupted the whole group), are just a few of the casualties.

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Tim graduated with a history degree from Cambridge University in 1989 and, after a year of travelling, joined the financial services firm Ernst and Young in 1990, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1994.

He then moved into financial markets training, designing and running a variety of courses at graduate level and beyond for a range of organisations including the Securities and Investment Institute and UBS. He joined MoneyWeek in 2007.