The man overseeing Tesco’s push into the US has admitted the supermarket was wrong not to get “down and dirty on price” and hinted that major changes could be on the way for Fresh & Easy.

“There's less loyalty in the American market,” Tesco US boss Tim Mason said in an interview with the Sunday Times. “We may have assumed that certain elements of the Fresh & Easy brand would do the work for us and we would not have to go down and dirty on price. That may have been a mistake.”

He added: “In a key moment at a focus group, one man told them that he had stopped shopping at Fresh & Easy because they no longer sent him a flier promoting the latest special offers. We came out of that meeting and said we had better make sure we hit everyone in the area with fliers.”

Fresh & Easy launched in November 2007 and has more than 110 stores in the US. However, plans to expand to more than 200 outlets were recently put on hold as the UK’s largest retailer reconsiders its options.

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