EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets chief marketing officer Simon Uwins has left the chain.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets chief marketing officer Simon Uwins has left the chain.

His departure comes as the retailer, a division of Britain’s Tesco PLC, is implementing changes to its strategy.

Fresh & Easy has named John Burry as chief customer officer, according to a report in the Financial Times. He will now be responsible for marketing, in addition to his ongoing responsibility for commercial and manufacturing. Fresh & Easy chief executive officer Tim Mason reportedly intends to bring all the customer-facing functions of its commercial and marketing operations together in one team.

Uwins’ departure came one week after the retailer debuted a scaled-down format called Fresh & Easy Express in Los Angeles. The store measures 3,000 square feet, compared with 10,000 for the chain’s typical store, and carries about half the number of SKUs.

The chain plans to open four more Express outlets by the end of its current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, it has just announced that it is now hiring more than 600 people for 20 stores in California and Nevada that are set to open next week.

Fresh & Easy is also rolling out a loyalty card program and adding fresh bakeries to its stores.