Beleaguered retailer Tesco has parachuted its new chief financial officer into the role more than two months earlier than planned.
Alan Stewart, previously in the same post at Marks & Spencer, was due to join in December, to replace Laurie McIlwee who resigned in April.
According to the BBC, the move was at the personal request of Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis to his M&S counterpart Marc Bolland, who allowed Stewart to leave early.
Yesterday Tesco made the shock announcement that it had overstated its half-year profit forecast by £250 million, and suspended four of its senior executives.
Among those suspended are UK managing director Chris Bush, and GFS architect Matt Simister.
Analysts have said that the overstatement may have come from commercial income from suppliers that had been registered early in order to boost profits. It is not yet clear if contracts with fresh produce suppliers were involved in the issue.
Tesco has launched an independent investigation into the error, headed by Deloitte, and has said work is now ongoing to establish the effect on full-year results, due to be released on 23 October.
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