Tesco is to trial a version of its successful Clubcard loyalty scheme at its Fresh & Easy chain in the US.

The scheme will run as part of the Friends of Fresh & Easy programme, which currently offers customers product information and special offers. The grocer will use the loyalty scheme to try to stem losses at its Fresh & Easy chain, which has 176 stores, and a further 38 by the end of February 2012.

Fresh & Easy chief executive Tim Mason told the Financial Times that the US was ready for a loyalty scheme. He said: “Clubcard has always been, from the very first day we launched it, the icing on the cake, not the cake itself, and so, therefore, you have to have an established business that is delivering every day for customers before introducing it.”

He said the Friends card differed from anything already in the US, where customers sign up to loyalty cards in order to secure lower prices on selected products.

Fresh & Easy has set a target of breaking even by the end of the 2012-13 financial year.

Fresh & Easy will work with the arm of Dunnhumby based in the UK on the loyalty scheme because the US arm works with Kroger, a rival supermarket chain.  

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