The supermarket chain has today announced that it is to sell the smallest of its international retail businesses.

Th UK's largest supermarket chain, Tesco plc (LON:TSCO), has today announced that it is to sell its business in Japan after an eight year long struggle with the smallest of its international retail businesses.

Philip Clarke, Chief Executive Officer of Tesco Plc, said:

"We have reviewed our portfolio in Asia and the performance of our business in Japan. Having made considerable efforts in Japan, we have concluded that we cannot build a sufficiently scalable business.

"We have decided to sell our operations there and focus on our larger businesses in the region, in line with our priority of driving growth and improving returns.

"With good stores in good locations across Greater Tokyo, we will be undertaking a formal sale process over the coming months and the business will continue to trade as usual in the meantime."

The company operates 129 small stores in the Greater Tokyo area under the Tsurakame, Tesco and Tesco Express formats. The supermarket chain states in a statement that over half of the stores are profitable.