Britain's biggest retailer Tesco says it will leave Japan after deciding to sell its network of 129 small supermarkets in the country. The move is aimed at enabling it to focus more on other operations in Asia.
"Tesco has today announced its decision to sell its business in Japan," the group said in a statement which followed a major review of its activities across Asia.
The world's third largest retailer by sales added that the underperforming Japanese division was the smallest of Tesco's international businesses.
"We have reviewed our portfolio in Asia and the performance of our business in Japan," Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke said. He said that, after considerable efforts. the group had decided that it could not build a big enough business in the country.
Tesco added, however, that more than half of the 129 small stores in the greater Tokyo area that operate under the Tsurakame, Tesco and Tesco Express names, actually make a profit.
Tesco is the world's third-largest retail group after US-based Wal-Mart and France's Carrefour. Tesco employs 500,000 staff worldwide has more than 5,400 shops in 14 countries around the world.
That includes over 1,400 branches in Asia, where it has stores in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. Tesco had entered the Japanese market in 2003 with the purchase of the C2 Network, which ran stores under the Tsurakame brand.
