Tesco and Safeway join forces

NEWS Tesco, which claims to be the world's largest online grocer, is joining forces with Safeway to set up an online supermarket in the US. The British retailer is paying £15.7m for a 35 per cent stake in GroceryWorks. Safeway owns 50 per cent of the company. Tim Mason, marketing and ecommerce director at Tesco, said: "They are paying for our experience and technology expertise. A year ago we said that we had created a solution that we would be able to sell on to other people - and now that's happening." The joint venture will exploit the Safeway brand and Tesco's experience selling online. They will use stores rather than warehouses to fulfil orders as in the UK. Tesco employs 240,000 people in the EMEA region.