By TIFFANY MONTGOMERY
Britain’s Tesco PLC plans to open stores in Fullerton and Laguna Hills and is looking at several other Orange County spots as part of its U.S. push.
Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer and one of the largest in the world with $73 billion in yearly sales, has said the stores will target folks on the go. They’re set to be modeled along the lines of Tesco’s upscale Express convenience stores, which number 800 in five countries.
The 14,000-square-foot Fullerton store is planned at Euclid Street and Orangethorpe Avenue in a 50,000-square-foot shopping center proposed for the site, according to Matt Stowe, chief operating officer of Lake Development Group in Newport Beach, which is developing the center.
In Laguna Hills, city officials have approved a plan for a 14,000-square-foot Tesco store at Moulton Plaza, said Vern Jones, community development director. The building is set to go up within the next year near the entrance to the center, he said.
The shopping center, on Moulton Parkway near Leisure World, is home to a Big Lots store and Polly Pies.
Tesco also has talked with Orange officials about a former grocery store at Chapman Avenue and Main Street but hasn’t submitted plans yet, said Robert Garcia, a city planner.
The company has scouted sites in San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point, according to city officials there.
“They are looking at anything and everything,” developer Stowe said.
Tesco, with 2,500 stores worldwide, said in September it would spend up to $490 million a year on a U.S. expansion, starting on the West Coast.
Tesco spokesman Greg Sage said the company is evaluating 300 sites in Southern California, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
But Tesco has picked an extremely competitive market for its U.S. debut.
“Of all the areas in the U.S., they are trying to enter into Southern California, which is perhaps the toughest market,” said Gregory Stoffel of retail consulting firm Gregory Stoffel & Associates in Irvine.
For more on this story, see the Dec. 11 edition of the Business Journal.
