UK retailer Tesco has stepped up the pace of its UK overhaul and plans to deliver what it had initially tasked itself with as a three-year programme of investments in just 12 months.

Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke told The Sun newspaper that the group’s planned investment in improving customer service, refreshing existing stores and opening an unspecified number of new ones was the beginning of a “big change” at the supermarket operator.

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The scheme, announced yesterday (5 March), will create 20,000 new jobs in the UK.

According to the interview, over the next year Tesco will look to improve its UK performace through a raft of initiatives dealing with its price positioning, online offering and home deliver capabilities.

“We had a three-year plan for the UK, but now we’re going to do it all in 2012,” Clarke commented.

Next week, Tesco will start an internet push that will include the relaunch of Tesco’s entire non-food business online, Clarke revealed.

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The company is also mulling alternative ways to expand its online presence and Clarke added that Tesco is considering opening its website as a “marketplace” through which other retailers would be able to sell goods.

In a separate interview with the Financial Times, Clarke also revealed that he hopes Tesco’s US business could reach breakeven point this year.

It is estimated that Fresh & Easy has racked up losses in the region of GBP700m (US$1.1bn) since it launched in the US in 2007.

“On the one hand, not losing money is a good thing, but, on the other hand, generating strong returns from the business would be a great moment, and that is where we are starting to focus our efforts now, because that is the next great question,” Clarke told the FT.

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