Tesco sheds three more executives in wake of profit overstatement
Tesco has asked three non-executive directors to leave the company, taking the total number of departures in less than a month since it revealed a £250m black hole in its profit to eight.
The supermarket said in a statement: "We have asked three employees to step aside to facilitate the investigation into the potential overstatement of profits in UK food.
"We will provide an update on the investigation with our interim results on 23 October."
Tesco did not name the individuals involved. Chief executive Dave Lewis, who took up his post in September, has previously said departures are not "disciplinary or an admission of guilt".
This is just the latest in a series of departures from the UK's biggest supermarket in the wake of its shock revelation that it had overstated its profits by a quarter of a billion last month.
Just days after the accounting error first emerged, four executives were suspended. Although no names have been confirmed, it is widely thought that UK managing director Chris Bush is among those to have stepped aside.
UK finance director Carl Rogberg, head of food sourcing Matt Simister and food commercial director John Scouler are thought to be the remaining three individuals.
And over the weekend, another two executives – company secretary Jonathan Lloyd and chairman of the audit committee Ken Hanna – left the company.
Tesco is being investigated by regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). An internal investigation is being conducted by Deloitte and law firm Freshfields.