Ex-Trader Joe's VP, Winn-Dixie Exec Larry Biggerstaff New Director of Grocery at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

The Tesco corporate flag flies at full staff over corporate headquarters in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. With divisions and stores in Europe, Asia and the United States, the sun seldom sets on the Tesco flag.

Breaking Buzz -- and Analysis

Rather than replacing its former director of grocery buying and merchandising, Sean McCurley, with an executive from its United Kingdom headquarters, Tesco has hired Larry Biggerstaff, a grocery buying and merchandising executive and manager with extensive experience in the U.S. food and grocery retailing industry, as the new director of grocery at El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

We broke the news of former grocery director McCurley's departure, to return to Tesco in the United Kingdom, in a May 2010 story, which you can read here: May 23, 2010 - Director of Grocery Sean McCurley Leaving Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Return to Tesco in the UK.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has been without a director of grocery since then.

Since Sean McCurley's departure months ago, there's been considerable speculation in certain circles in the UK and U.S. that Tesco would replace him with someone from its UK headquarters. But that's not the case...this time around.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market hasn't announced the hiring of Biggerstaff as its director of grocery.

Larry Biggerstaff hasn't personally announced his new job or new employer yet either. For example, on his Linked-In.com profile page, as of the time (10:02 pm) this story was published today, he has listed as his current position the 'to be announced' as shown below (in italics) directly from the Linked-In page:

Larry Biggerstaff
Grocery Executive at TBA - September 2010
Location
Greater Los Angeles Area
Industry
Retail

Prior to accepting the position as director of grocery with Tesco's Fresh & Easy, Biggerstaff was the vice president of merchandising at Morovia, California-headquartered Trader Joe's, although his time with the iconic Southern California-based grocery chain of about 315 stores was brief.

Before joining Trader Joe's, Larry Biggerstaff was senior director of grocery, dairy, frozen, alcohol and tobacco at Jacksonville, Florida-based supermarket chain Winn-Dixie. In that position he had overall responsibility for all of the chain's buying and merchandising in those respective categories. Before assuming the senior director position at Winn Dixie, he was the director of category management at the chain.

While at Winn-Dixie, Biggerstaff, who attended Western Michigan University, graduated from the 'Retail Masters Program,' class of 2008, sponsored by the Florida Retail Federation.

Biggerstaff has also worked as a category manager for mass-merchandise chain Target, and as a category manager and logistics director for Walmart's Sam's Club membership warehouse chain.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy divides its corporate grocery buying and merchandising function (which it calls 'commercial,' using the British industry term) into two functional areas, grocery (which it calls ambient, again using the British industry term) and fresh (for fresh foods). We use U.S. industry terminology in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

The fresh department includes produce, meat and deli/fresh-prepared foods. Grocery includes all ambient packaged grocery and non-foods products, along with beer, wine and spirits. Packaged perishables like frozen food also are part of grocery.

John Burry, who is one of the original Tesco UK transplants who came to America to start up Fresh & Easy in 2006-2007, is the senior executive in charge of the grocery merchandising and buying (commercial) function at the fresh food and grocery chain, which is based in El Segundo, California, and has 163 stores, with five new units opening on September 15 (2 stores) and September 22 (3 units). Four new stores opened on September 8.

In December 2009, Jim Jensen, the former director of fresh at Fresh & Easy, left the chain to take a job heading up Walgreen Drug Co.'s new fresh foods program, joining former Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market senior vice president of retail operations Brain Pugh, who had previously joined the drug chain to head up its expanded grocery merchandising and retailing efforts.

We broke that news of Jim Jensen's departure, and his joining Walgreens, in this story - Breaking Buzz: Corporate Director of Fresh Foods Jim Jensen Leaves Tesco's Fresh & Easy - on January 6, 2010. Also see this story - January 21, 2010: Walgreens Announces Hiring of Former Fresh & Easy Fresh Foods Director Jim Jensen; Confirms Our January 6 Report.

Additionally, Fresh & Easy Buzz was the first publication of any kind to report on Brian Pugh's sudden departure from Tesco's Fresh & Easy in this September 22, 2008 story: Key Personnel Breaking News: Co-Vice President of Retail Operations Brian Pugh No Longer Employed At Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

Pugh was hired by Walgreens in late 2008. See our stories - December 22, 2008: Breaking News: Mega-Drug Chain Walgreens Hires Former Tesco Fresh & Easy USA VP of Operations Brian Pugh For New VP of Format Development Position and March 2, 2009: Walgreens Promotes Former Tesco Fresh & Easy Exec Bryan Pugh to VP Merchandising Position; Move Fits Drug Chain's Current Strategic Focus - for details.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market replaced Jim Jensen as director of fresh foods, who spent all of his career in the U.S. retail food-grocery and convenience store industry, including working as a category manager for 7-Eleven, with Tim Lee, who prior to coming to Fresh & Easy earlier this year was a long time category executive and manager at Tesco's headquarters in the UK. The Fresh & Easy position is Lee's first in the U.S.

Tim Lee's specialty at Tesco's corporate headquarters in the UK, where he was a produce category procurement director, was fresh produce. There Lee and another Tesco produce category procurement director, Alex Dower, launched Tesco's global fresh produce sourcing buying and supply chain initiative in about mid-2009. The initiative focuses on direct procurement of fresh produce for Tesco stores in the UK and continental Europe. Lee's responsibilities included setting up satellite offices in growing and sourcing regions around the world and staffing the offices with technical specialists and produce buying teams.

Lee was a key force behind Tesco's buyout of Fresh & Easy's produce and meat suppliers, Wild Rocket Foods (fresh produce) and 2 Sisters Food group (fresh meat), earlier this year. The buyout, which Tesco director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market CEO Tim Mason said cost "tens of millions of dollars"happened shortly after Lee arrived at Fresh & Easy from Tesco UK and assumed the director of fresh position.

Lee is also a key force behind Fresh & Easy's recent (July 2010) expansion of its 'Farm to Store in 24' locally-grown produce program. Direct procurement (think the the Wild Rocket buyout) and locally-grown produce (think 'Farm to Store in 24') were two of the programs Tim Lee worked on and developed in his position at Tesco UK. [Read: June 21, 2010: The Missing Link in Tesco's Purchase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Meat Supplier '2 Sisters Food Group' and June 9, 2010: Key 'Veteran' Fresh Produce Category Manager Chris Harris Leaves Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market]

After Sean McCurley left Fresh & Easy to return to Tesco in the UK, we suggested Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market replace him with a director of grocery who has extensive experience in the U.S., particularly in the Western U.S. and especially in California. The grocery chain has done that to a significant degree, although Larry Biggerstaff's experience in the Western USA is limited. But it is in the U.S.

Former director of fresh foods, Jim Jensen, has a U.S. food and grocery retailing background. His replacement, Tim Lee, has a United Kingdom industry background.

Former director of grocery, Sean McCurley, has a UK-only background, while Larry Biggerstaff has spent his entire career in the U.S.

All things being equal (like individualism and performance), perhaps Tesco has found a good balance in its new (Biggerstaff) and fairly new (Lee) directors of grocery and fresh foods. One (Lee) has Tesco experience and the other (Biggerstaff) has a long track record of experience in U.S. food and grocery retailing.

The Missing Link in Tesco's Purchase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Meat Supplier '2 Sisters Food Group'

Pictured above is (the artists rendering) the '2 Sisters Food Group' facility in Riverside County, California, which is located next to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center. Dynamic Builders, the contractor for the 2 Sisters' building, set up a cellular-cam during construction. You can view a slide-show and a time-lapse video show of the construction of the facility here. It's worth a look.

Analysis/Commentary

Yesterday (June 20, 2010) Fresh & Easy Buzz broke the story that a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge, Lana H. Parke, on June 10 ruled against Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's fresh meat and prepared foods ingredient supplier, United Kingdom-based 2 Sisters Food Group, in an unfair labor practices case brought against it by the United Foods & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union.

[Read our story here: June 20, 2010 - NLRB Judge Rules Against Key Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Supplier '2 Sisters Food Group' in Labor Relations Violations Case.]

Fresh & Easy Buzz is the only publication to report on the judge's decision thus far, based on a search we just completed.

However, interestingly, today's Financial Times just happens to have a short story, "Tesco takes over Fresh & Easy suppliers," which features an interview with Tesco plc director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason, who hasn't spoken to the press in a rather long time, and who now is in the sites of The CtW Investment Group, which works with pension funds sponsored by the Change to Win coalition of U.S. labor unions, for the substantial pay package he recently received. See our June 4, 2010 story: Every Little (Bit) Helps: Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Mason Paid $6.188 Million For 2009]

Last week, on June 17, CtW Investment Group sent this letter (and this press release to the media) to Tesco shareholders regarding what the group says is excessive remuneration for Mr. Mason. In the letter they urge Tesco shareholders to vote no on proxy Item #2, the Directors’ Remuneration Report, at Tesco’s upcoming July 2nd shareholder meeting in the UK.

In the story today (it's here), Tim Mason tells the Financial Times that Tesco is buying and taking over 2 Sisters Food Group and its other privately-owned in-house supplier, Wild Rocket Foods, which serves as Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's fresh produce procurement arm.

The story says: Tim Mason, the head of the Fresh & Easy business, told the Financial Times it was a sign of its commitment to the US business. While not large enough to require disclosure, he said the transaction involved “tens of millions of dollars” and “a real amount of money”.

If not large enough to require disclosure, Why did Mason disclose it at all. And why specifically disclose it today in the Financial Times, the day after our story on the NRLB decision against 2 Sisters Food group? There's no press release on the subject in the "newsroom" on the Fresh & Easy website, for example.

2 Sisters Food Group and Wild Rocket Foods are privately-owned companies. Tesco brought both firms to the U.S. to serve as its supply partners for Fresh & Easy. Both companies have facilities next door to Tesco's 850,000 square-foot Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center in Riverside County, California. The impressive 2 Sisters Food Group facility is only a few years old and is about 53,000 square-feet. The facility was a substantial investment for the company.

In the story, Fresh & Easy CEO Mason also says: "The move (buying 2 Sisters Food Group and Wild Rocket Foods) would lead to 'synergies and economies by putting the management teams of the units together. . . we think will be very beneficial for the business." OK.

Mason is also attributed by the Financial Times' reporter as saying '2 Sisters Food Group and Wild Rocket Foods had not performed as well as their owners had hoped, as Fresh & Easy slowed its expansion plans.'

"Has Fresh & Easy gone more slowly than we initially planned and they initially planned? Well, yes. And that has obvious consequences," Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Mason is quoted as saying in the story.

What isn't said in the Financial Times' story today of course is that both suppliers have been losing far more money as part of Tesco's U.S. venture that they had ever expected to. Both firms essentially wanted out of the deal - and it now appears they are.

Interestingly, the Financial Times story says nothing about the NLRB Administrative Law Judge's June 10 decision against 2 Sisters Food Group, which we reported yesterday.

The UFCW first filed an unfair labor practices complaint against 2 Sisters Food Group in 2008, as we reported here [August 27, 2008 we reported in this piece - UFCW Union Reports Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Prepared Foods Supplier to Labor Board For What it Says is Unfair Firing of Six Employees] and in our story yesterday. Paying for nearly two years' of legal costs in fighting the charges, which resulted on June 10 in a victory for the UFCW union, has just added to 2 Sisters Food Group's expenses in California.

Unfortunately nothing Tim Mason says in the Financial Times story, in the couple sentences about sales, same-store-sales and the like, sheds any light on Fresh & Easy's performance. It's just a brief repetition of the generalized comments, void of any metrics, Tesco made when it reported its fiscal year 2009/10 sales and earnings in April.

We aren't surprised Tesco is buying its produce supplier Wild Rocket Foods. They signaled this in part when they transferred Tim Lee from UK corporate headquarters to Fresh & Easy USA, as its new director of fresh foods.

Tim Lee's specialty at Tesco's corporate headquarters in the UK, where he was a produce category procurement director, was fresh produce. There Lee and another Tesco produce category procurement director, Alex Dower, launched Tesco's global fresh produce sourcing buying and supply chain initiative in about mid-2009. The initiative focuses on direct procurement of fresh produce for Tesco stores in the UK and continental Europe. Lee's responsibilities included setting up satellite offices in growing and sourcing regions around the world and staffing the offices with technical specialists and produce buying teams.

Basically, what Tesco is doing with Wild Rocket Foods is buying it and folding it into its corporate procurement function, with a California Fresh & Easy twist, which Tim Lee was responsible for in the UK, and was sent to Fresh & Easy in part to do in some form.

Another signal Tesco was up to something with its produce procurement came when we learned - and reported here - June 9, 2010: Key 'Veteran' Fresh Produce Category Manager Chris Harris Leaves Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market - that fresh produce category manager Chris Harris had left Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Harris' departure now takes on a much brighter picture in light of Tesco's buying of Wild Rocket Foods, combined with the naming of Tim Lee as director of fresh foods a few months ago. (We commented in the piece linked above that Lee was making some changes to Fresh & Easy's produce procurement since coming on board. Check it out.)

In light of NLRB Administrative Law Judge Parke's June 10 ruling against 2 Sisters Food Group, we aren't surprised that Tesco is buying 2 Sisters' as well, although we didn't know it was until reading Mr. Mason's announcement today in the Financial Times, just a day after our story was published.

Buying 2 Sisters Food group and Wild Rocket Foods though is a complete 180 degree turn by Tesco. The key reason Tesco brought 2 Sisters Food Group and Wild Rocket Foods with it to America was so that it could outsource the labor intensive fresh meat and produce functions, thereby saving considerable labor costs.

As such, does it logically (and financially) follow that Tesco wants to buy the two companies, since doing so means adding hundreds (CEO Mason says 750 in the Financial Times story) of new employees to the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market payroll? Not on your life.

However, 2 Sisters is Tesco's primary fresh meat supplier in the UK. Additionally, Wild Rocket is owned by Tesco's leading fresh produce supplier in the UK, Langmead Farms. These relationships also help explain why Tesco would want to bailout the two companies by taking over their respective U.S. operations., even though the cost is in the "tens of millions," according to Tesco director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market CEO Mason.

We've been hearing from sources for some time that both 2 Sisters Food Group and Wild Rocket have been bleeding red ink, hoping for something to give, like an increase in sales volume at Fresh & Easy. It appears now both suppliers - what Tesco designed as it outsourcing hat trick fro Fresh & Easy - will bleed red ink no more in California, but rather take what they can get from Tesco and head back to the United Kingdom.

And since it's selling its U.S. operations to Tesco, 2 Sisters Food Group won't have to follow all those remedies the NRLB Administrative Law Judge laid out in her June 10 ruling. Tesco might have to though.

Related stories:

June 20, 2010: NLRB Judge Rules Against Key Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Supplier '2 Sisters Food Group' in Labor Relations Violations Case

June 20, 2010: NLRB Judge Rules Against Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Spring Valley CA Store Labor Law Violation Case

June 12, 2010: Will Phil Clarke Shake Things up at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA When He Becomes Tesco CEO in 2011?

June 8, 2010: Tesco CEO Terry Leahy Retiring; Philip Clarke New CEO; Tim Mason Named Deputy CEO But Will Remain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Chief in U.S.

June 4, 2010: Every Little (Bit) Helps: Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Mason Paid $6.188 Million For 2009

Key 'Veteran' Fresh Produce Category Manager Chris Harris Leaves Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

The produce department in Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores. [Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market]

Breaking Buzz

Fresh on the heels of former director of grocery buying and merchandising Sean McCurley's departure from Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to return to Tesco in the United Kingdom (UK) at the end of May [May 23, 2010: Director of Grocery Sean McCurley Leaving Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Return to Tesco in the UK], the El Segundo, California-based fresh food and grocery chain's corporate buying and merchandising department has lost another key player: Fresh produce category manager Chris Harris.

Harris, who was one of the few - if not the last - remaining original category managers who joined Fresh & Easy in late 2006-2007 before the first stores were opened, has left the company to pursue another employment opportunity in the fresh produce industry, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

Since opening its first stores in November 2007, Fresh & Easy has seen numerous category managers and buyers come and go. [See -August 17, 2008: Special Report: Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Experiencing A Category Manager and Buyer 'Brain Drain' and August 17, 2008: Special Report: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Director of Grocery Returning to the UK; Grocery Chain Reorganizing its Corporate Buying Department.] In fact, Chris Harris could be called the "departed veteran category manager" at Fresh & Easy because of the rapid turnover over the last three years in the corporate buying and merchandising department. The department is run by John Burry. He previously worked at Tesco in the UK. He came with CEO Mason and the initial group of senior executives from across the pond to start up Fresh & Easy in 2006.

The fresh food and grocery chain is also already on its second set of directors in both fresh foods and grocery in the corporate buying department. [See first link above, plus - 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; January 6, 2009: Breaking Buzz: Corporate Director of Fresh Foods Jim Jensen Leaves Tesco's Fresh & Easy; and May 23, 2010: Director of Grocery Sean McCurley Leaving Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Return to Tesco in the UK.] Fresh & Easy divides its corporate buying and merchandising department and function into two sections - fresh and grocery. Fresh includes produce, perishables and fresh-prepared foods. Grocery (which the grocer calls ambient, using the British industry term) includes dry grocery and everything else that's "ambient."

Chris Harris, 34, was a key player for Fresh & Easy's corporate buying and merchandising department because, among other positive attributes, he was known to be an aggressive, "get it done" fresh produce category manager, as well as a solid relationship builder, according to growers, vendors, and others who worked with him during his about three years at the fresh food and grocery chain of 159 stores. They also say Harris loves the fresh produce business in general, and demonstrated it in his job at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, and in vendor relations.

Harris also is a native of the UK - although he never worked for Tesco before joining Fresh & Easy - which offers a certain cachet at the grocer's corporate headquarters in Southern California. Virtually all of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA's senior executives, from CEO Tim Mason on down, all came from the UK, and all worked for Tesco there previously.

Chris Harris first came to the U.S. in 2005, after working for a lettuce growing company in the UK, to work in the grower-processor side of the fresh produce industry. He working for the Ready-Pac and Professional Produce companies in Southern California before joining Fresh & Easy in 2007.

Additionally, he was a key player for the buying and merchandising department at Tesco's Fresh & Easy because he has a strong institutional memory of the start up of the chain in 2007, since he was key in getting the fresh produce category set up and functioning. That can be a difficult type of experience to replace, particularly at such a young grocery chain.

The timing of Harris' departure comes just shortly after a new director of fresh foods - Tim Lee - started at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

Lee only recently joined Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market from Tesco in the United Kingdom, replacing Jim Jensen, the former director of fresh foods who left to take a job helping to start up the fresh, prepared foods program at Walgreens drug. [See - January 6, 2009: Breaking Buzz: Corporate Director of Fresh Foods Jim Jensen Leaves Tesco's Fresh & Easy; January 15, 2010: Just-Exited Tesco Fresh & Easy Fresh Foods Director Jim Jensen to Head New Fresh Foods Initiative at Walgreens Drug Chain and January 21, 2010: Walgreens Announces Hiring of Former Fresh & Easy Fresh Foods Director Jim Jensen; Confirms Our January 6 Report]

Tim Lee's specialty at Tesco's corporate headquarters in the UK, where he was a produce category procurement director, was fresh produce. There Lee and another Tesco produce category procurement director, Alex Dower, launched Tesco's global fresh produce sourcing buying and supply chain initiative in about mid-2009. The initiative focuses on direct procurement of fresh produce for Tesco stores in the UK and continental Europe. Lee's responsibilities included setting up satellite offices in growing and sourcing regions around the world and staffing the offices with technical specialists and produce buying teams. [More here.]

Sources tell us Lee has started initiating various changes in Fresh & Easy's fresh produce procurement and related policies and practices, based on some of the experiences he had with Tesco in the UK. As far as we're aware, Tim Lee has no previous experience in the U.S. food and grocery retailing or fresh produce industries.

Prior to Lee's arrival, Chris Harris was the point man for fresh produce procurement, pretty much running the category, with supervision by Jim Jensen, who's area of expertise is more in the fresh, prepared foods and related categories rather than produce.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy hasn't replaced Harris yet, nor is it currently advertising for his produce-bakery category manager position as of today.

Director of Grocery Sean McCurley Leaving Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Return to Tesco in the UK

Breaking Buzz

Corporate director of grocery buying and merchandising Sean McCurley is leaving Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to return to Tesco's global headquarters in Cheshunt, United Kingdom, where he worked prior to joining the U.S. fresh food and grocery chain as director of fresh foods, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned. Mr. McCurley was a member of the original group of Tesco executives and others who started up Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Spring 2006.

According to our sources, McCurley is set to leave Fresh & Easy's El Segundo, California headquarters to return to work at Tesco in the UK as early as the end of this month, but no later than June 12.

We're told Sean McCurley is leaving Fresh & Easy on good terms with Tesco.

His specific new position at Tesco in the UK isn't clear. But it will be in the commercial (buying and merchandising) area.

McCurley was Fresh & Easy's director of fresh foods until August 2008, when he became director of grocery, replacing Charlotte Maxwell, who left Fresh & Easy and returned to the UK that month. [See - August 17, 2008: Special Report: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Director of Grocery Returning to the UK; Grocery Chain Reorganizing its Corporate Buying Department] [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]

Charlotte Maxwell left the employment of Tesco not long after. She moved to Australia in the spring of 2009, joining a group of British supermarket industry veterans who took over management of Australia's Coles supermarket chain. [See - December 25, 2009: It's 'British Invasion: The Sequel Down Under' For Former Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Director of Grocery Charlotte Maxwell.

Sean McCurley has held the corporate director of grocery position at Fresh & Easy since Ms. Maxwell's departure in August 2008.

In December of 2009 Jim Jensen, the then director of fresh foods at Fresh & Easy, who was promoted to that position from a category manager slot in August 2008 to replace McCurley, left Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to accept a key position at Walgreens drug in its start up fresh-prepared foods program, as we were the first publication to report. [See - January 6, 2009: Breaking Buzz: Corporate Director of Fresh Foods Jim Jensen Leaves Tesco's Fresh & Easy] [January 15, 2010: Just-Exited Tesco Fresh & Easy Fresh Foods Director Jim Jensen to Head New Fresh Foods Initiative at Walgreens Drug Chain.] [January 21, 2010: Walgreens Announces Hiring of Former Fresh & Easy Fresh Foods Director Jim Jensen; Confirms Our January 6 Report]

Jensen was recruited to Walgreens by former Tesco Fresh & Easy vice president of retail operation Brian Pugh, who left Fresh & Easy in the summer of 2008. Pugh joined Walgreens, where he's currently vice president of merchandising, in 2009.

Jim Jensen's vacated director of fresh foods position was recently filled by Tim Lee, who came to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market from Tesco's corporate headquarters in the UK. Tim Lee was a corporate director of produce group procurement at Tesco in the UK prior to leaving to join Fresh & Easy as director of fresh foods.

Lee and another Tesco produce category procurement director, Alex Dower, launched Tesco's global fresh produce sourcing buying and supply chain initiative in about mid-2009. The initiative focuses on direct procurement of fresh produce for Tesco stores in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Lee's responsibilities included setting up satellite offices in growing and sourcing regions around the world and staffing the offices with technical specialists and produce buying teams.

Dower left Tesco last year to join the London-based fresh-prepared foods-maker and retailer Pret A Manger, which in addition to having over 100 shops in the UK and eight in Hong Kong, has over 20 stores in New York City, one in Washington D.C. (soon to be two), and is opening its first ready-to-eat, grab-and-go fresh foods shop in the Chicago area in August of this year.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market divides its corporate buying and merchandising function into two departments - grocery and fresh foods. Internally it uses the British industry terms, which are "ambient" for grocery and "fresh" for fresh foods. Fresh foods at Fresh & Easy consists of produce, meats-seafood, dairy-deli and fresh-prepared foods. Everything that's ambient - dry grocery, non-foods and the like - is under the grocery department.

Sean McCurley's departure affords Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market the opportunity to hire a new corporate director of grocery buying and merchandising who has a strong background in U.S. food and grocery retailing in general and extensive experience (mixed with talent of course) in the Western U.S., particularly in California. Fresh & Easy's chief commercial officer (the British industry term they use for buying and merchandising) John Burry is from Tesco in the UK, as is recent arrival, director of fresh foods Tim Lee.

It will be interesting to see if Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason, who's also a Tesco plc corporate director, takes the above approach or if Tesco replaces Sean McCurley with someone from the UK, as in the case of Tim Lee replacing Jim Jensen. Jensen is an American who never worked for Tesco prior to being hired by Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

Tesco currently has 159 of its small-format (10,000 -to- 13,000 square-foot) Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market fresh food and grocery stores open and operating in California (Southern and the Central Valley areas of Bakersfield and Fresno), Metropolitan Las Vegas Nevada and Metro Phoenix, Arizona. In a November 27, 2007 presentation made in Southern California by CEO Tim Mason and his senior management team, Tony Eggs, Fresh & Easy's chief real estate officer, said there would be about 200 stores open and operating by February 2009. The grocer is about 60 stores shy of 200 units 15 months beyond February 2009, for those keeping count.