Tesco initially entered most of its foreign markets with an ethnocentric approach that sought to replicate its home success and culture in foreign locations. In the smaller and less distant cultures of central Europe this had worked well : then came France. The fact that the first international setback happened across the Channel was no great surprise; UK competitors such as Marks&Spencer had also found the British-French cultural gap too wide to cross, even though France was Britain is nearest neighbor. In fact, making English Tesco is operating language was harder in France than in any other country in which it operated.