Friday, August 22, 2008

Special Report: Today Last Day For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Director of Grocery Charlotte Maxwell; Moving Back to Tesco in the UK


On August 17 we reported in this piece: "Special Report: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Director of Grocery Returning to the UK; Grocery Chain Reorganizing its Corporate Buying Department," that Charlotte Maxwell, director of grocery at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA, is leaving Tesco's U.S. food and grocery retailing venture to return to Tesco's corporate offices in the United Kingdom to accept a grocery director's position which she interviewed internally for and was recently offered. It was an offer she accepted.

In the August 17 story we reported she would be leaving Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and its headquarters in El Segundo, (Southern) California for her new position at Tesco in the UK before the end of this month.

We've now learned that today, August 22, is Ms. Maxwell's last day with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA and at its Southern California headquarters.

After today, Ms. Maxwell, who's home is Britain, will be returning home to live and take up her position as a grocery director level four at Tesco's offices in the UK.

Like many of the Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market senior executives, including CEO Tim Mason, marketing director Simon Uwins and others, Ms. Maxwell came from the UK to Southern California to start up the Fresh & Easy chain. And like Mr. Mason, Mr. Uwins and most of the food retailer's other senior executives, Fresh & Easy has been Ms. Maxwell's first experience with food and grocery retailing American style.

As we reported in our August 17 piece, Sean McCurley, also a British native, will be replacing Charlotte Maxwell as corporate director of grocery at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Mr. McCurley is currently the director of fresh, which has been an equal position to Ms. Maxwell's in Fresh & Easy's corporate structure. Essentially he is making a lateral move within the company. He begins his new position with Charlotte Maxwell's departure today.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market splits its category management/merchandising and buying department into two functional areas: grocery and fresh, as we detailed in our August 17 piece.

As part of Ms. Maxwell's departure, Tesco's Fresh & Easy is reorganizing its corporate buying department, replacing her with Mr. McCurley, along with making other adjustments and changes in the department.

That reorganization also comes on the heels of five category managers and buyers having left Fresh & Easy in the last 4 -to- 5 months. For more information on this category manager and buyer brain drain at Fresh & Easy's corporate offices read our other August 17 piece: "Special Report: Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Experiencing A Category Manager and Buyer 'Brain Drain.'"

Tesco opened its 73rd Fresh & Easy small-format (average 10,000 -to- 13,000 square feet) combination basic grocery and fresh foods store on Wedneday, August 20 at Tustin and Chapman streets in the Southern California city of Orange. It's the grocery chain's second store in the city, and its eighth unit in Orange County, which the city of Orange is located in.

Related stories from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

August 17, 2008: Special Report: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Director of Grocery Returning to the UK; Grocery Chain Reorganizing its Corporate Buying Department

August 17, 2008: Special Report: Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Experiencing A Category Manager and Buyer 'Brain Drain'

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