Tesco develops local taste, displays curry ingredients to attract Asians

LONDON: Tesco has set up the entrance at its store at Upton Park in East London to reflect the neighborhood demographic. Mango juice at 50 pence ($0.81) a carton sits beside a stock of 21 Asian publications. Garlic comes in big 500-gram nets, while bags of potatoes from Kent advertise them as a perfect ingredient for curry.

What you won't see by the door - staples of traditional packet sauces, tinned soups and 10 types of dog food.

Tesco has refreshed 80 stores in London this year with a targeted, local focus to lure back customers who have defected to cheaper rivals and neighborhood shops. In Upton Park's case, Tesco says almost all of the area residents are Asian or black and many have large families -- hence the 20-kilo bags of rice and 20-liter drums of cooking oil you'd usually find in a catering industry-supply shop.

"You wouldn't think people would buy these on a high street but they do and bring them home on the bus," said Andrew Yaxley, Tesco's first MD for London. Yaxley, a 46-year-old former Mars Inc. executive, has been running Tesco's newest business unit - London - since January. While the rest of the domestic business struggles, the British executive tasked with reviving the biggest UK grocer's only separate domestic geographical unit and creating models that can be replicated in the rest of the country.