Tesco PLC is a global leading retailer with over £60 billion in annual sales. Retailing is a highly competitive industry characterized by low profit margins, brand recognition, inventory management and economies of scale. Tesco mostly focuses on food products with two thirds of their sales coming from the UK, 15% from Eastern Europe and 17% from Asia. Tesco has a strong grocery brand and high customer loyalty (30% grocery market share) in the UK and has been using their brand power to expand their business into the banking sector with promising results. Aggressive growth has been pursued internationally with generally good results from Asia with the focus shifting to the fragmented but competitive Chinese market. Tesco is also trying to gain a foothold in the competitive western US grocery market by developing distribution networks, scale and expensively undercutting its competitors. Tesco expects to have its American operations profitable by 2013, although this remains uncertain. UK economic weakness is hurting Tesco’s non-food retail sales, affecting growth and efficiency.