Tesco has yet to decide how to exit the U.S. market, where it set up the Fresh Easy convenience stores in 2007, but said the move would cost 1.2 billion pounds, or $1.8 billion. Some analysts have said the withdrawal, which was expected, comes after the British chain grossly misjudged American consumer habits.

“With profound and rapid change in the way consumers live their lives, our objective is to be the best multichannel retailer for customers,” the chief executive, Philip Clarke, said in a statement. “Our focus now is on disciplined and targeted investment in those markets with significant growth potential and the opportunity to deliver strong returns.”

Mr. Clarke started a review of Tesco’s businesses over a year ago, scaling back operations oversees to focus on its struggling business at home. Large investments abroad over the past decade, including in Asia, proved expensive and somewhat less successful than hoped. At the same time, sales struggled in Britain, where Tesco relied too much on its large market share alone to generate sales growth.

Reporting a drop in profit for the year that ended Feb. 23, Tesco said business in South Korea and Europe was difficult. The economic crisis in Europe meant that consumers were cutting back spending and in South Korea, new restrictions in opening hours hurt sales.

Even in Britain, Tesco is slowing its expansion. It said it decided not to go ahead with planned expansions of about 100 properties here, adding to a total write-down on its real estate of 804 million pounds. Tesco has been losing market share in Britain to cheaper rivals like the discount retailer Aldi, and it was affected by the horse meat scandal earlier this year, which forced it to withdraw some products.

To attract consumers to its British stores, the chain invested in the upmarket coffee chain Harris + Hoole, the bakery brand Euphorium and the family-friendly restaurant chain Giraffe, which it bought last month.

Tesco’s announcements have “given investors mild indigestion,” Richard Hunter of Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said.

Tesco shares fell 2 percent in London on Wednesday morning. The supermarket chain said trading profit fell 13 percent to 3.45 billion pounds in its fiscal year that ended in February. Sales rose 1.3 percent to 72.4 billion pounds.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/business/global/tesco-to-pay-dearly-to-leave-us.html?partner=rss&emc=rss