LONDON – Tesco has finally put the nail in the coffin of its U.S. experiment with the announcement that the U.K. supermarket chain will sell its Fresh & Easy stores, the Press-Enterprise reports.

Analysts had been speculating for months that Tesco would jettison Fresh & Easy after the stores continually dismal sales. “The announcements made today are natural consequences of the strategic changes we first began over a year ago and which conclude today,” said Philip Clarke, CEO of Tesco, in a statement. “With profound and rapid change in the way consumers live their lives, our objective is to be the best multichannel retailer for customers.”

Fresh & Easy, which has dozens of stores, mostly in Southern California, bled $1.8 billion since its debut five years ago. “The consequences are non-cash write-offs relating to the United States, from which we today confirm our decision to exit, and for U.K. property investments which we will not pursue because of our fundamentally different approach to space. We have also faced external challenges which have affected our performance, notably in Europe and Korea,” said Clarke.

Tesco will begin looking for a buyer to take over Fresh & Easy, which CFO Laurie McIlwee said would take at least 90 days. Some analysts predict the chain will be split up among several purchasers instead of being sold altogether.