Tesco chief stands by US arm Fresh & Easy Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco, appeared to stand by its lossmaking US business as the head of Britain's biggest retailer pledged to lead a "revolution" in online retailing. Mr Clarke, speaking at the World Retail Congress in London, and just weeks before the retailer posts its half-year results, insisted there was a future for US business Fresh & Easy. "All the changes that we have been making have gone some way to prove that there is life in Fresh & Easy yet," he said. The comments come amid continued losses at Fresh & Easy, and moves to cut costs at the chain, including reducing staff and hours at some stores. The future of Fresh & Easy was thrust into the spotlight by the group's first profit warning for 20 years in January, driven by poor trade in the UK. "We are playing in a playground with some very big and very old retailers who are very wise, and its fighting nicely," said Mr Clarke. You can never call time on something [until you are sure]. Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, and who has a strong record in forecasting developments at Tesco, recently increased his estimates of losses at Fresh & Easy, from £103m to £127.6m this year. Mr Clarke also indicated in June that Tesco would pull out of the US if it saw no prospect of success. On Wednesday he pledged that Tesco would be at the forefront of the digital revolution in retail. "I want us to be part of the revolution in retailing, rather than a victim of evolution," he said. He said customers were increasingly turning to the web for their grocery shopping. "Food shopping online is all the growth we have in our core food business in the UK," he said. "People are opting out of stores," he said, adding: "Apps have become the new high street." Over half of the all visits to Tesco's online grocery business were to check prices. Consequently, there would be "less new space in the UK," and instead Tesco would target "more investment, more capability online." However, he insisted that online would never replace stores for grocery shopping. "The online and offline retail experience need to be like a bespoke, handmade suit, seamless and personalised to the customer's needs," he said. He said Tesco had called a halt to the unprecedented race among supermarkets to open new space. "We've called time on the old retail "space race,"" he said. Retail will no longer be about buying large swaths of real estate, but how we react to the needs of the digital shopper. He said that while Tesco would continue to build hypermarkets, "they will be smaller, built for how shoppers are shopping today and how they will want to shop tomorrow."