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Tesco Profit Error: New Finance Boss Rushed In

Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) has managed to secure the services of its new chief financial officer more than two months early - a day after revealing a £250m profits error.

Alan Stewart had in July quit the same role at Marks & Spencer (Other OTC: MAKSF - news) to join Tesco but was forced to take a period of so-called 'gardening leave'.

The supermarket chain said today that he would start work on Tuesday, rather than the previously announced date of December 1.

Tesco wanted to get Stewart early after revealing on Monday an accounting issue that had led it to overstate its first half profit forecast by £250m.

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It was later revealed that four executives in its UK business had been suspended as an inquiry examines the way rebates paid by suppliers were treated and whether they were reported in the right time period.

Its shares lost 12% of their value on the FTSE 100 in the hours after the announcements and the decline continued on Tuesday.

Tesco has been without a finance chief since Laurie McIlwee officially left the business earlier this month though Sky News learned today he had not been at its HQ since April - raising further the pressure on chairman Sir Richard Broadbent.

The supermarket's new chief executive, Dave Lewis, only started in the job at the beginning of September following the sacking of Philip Clarke on the eve of his 40th anniversary at the retailer.

A spokesman for M&S said the firm released Stewart after a personal appeal from Lewis to M&S chief executive Marc Bolland.

"It was a request from Dave to Marc ... We felt it was the right thing to do," he said, adding that Tesco did not pay any compensation for Stewart's early release.

The development emerged as new industry figures showed the extent of the challenge facing Tesco on the shop floor.

Kantar Worldpanel reported that while the chain's market share remained unchanged at 28.8% in the 12 weeks to September 14, its sales were down 4.5%.

Of the so-called 'Big Four', only Asda appeared to be holding off the challenge from the hard discounters at the bottom of the market and Waitrose at the top.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: "Consumers are currently benefiting from intense price competition between the grocers.

"For the first time ever we’ve seen the average basket of everyday goods bought today costing exactly the same as it did a year ago.

"Some staple groceries such as vegetables, milk and bread prices are actually falling as the big retailers all compete for a bigger slice of shoppers’ wallets.

"Aldi has continued its run of double-digit growth, which now stretches back to February 2011, by recording a sales increase of 29.1% compared with last year.

"Similarly, Lidl has increased sales by 17.7%, showing that shoppers still have a strong appetite for the discount stores.

"At the other end of the market Waitrose has grown its sales faster than in previous months, up 4.5%, which has brought its market share back up to 5.1%".