Tesco has suspended Kevin Grace, its group commercial director, as Deloitte and Freshfields push on with their investigation into the company’s £250m accounting black hole, revealed last month.
Grace, who has worked for Tesco for more than 30 years, is the fifth senior figure that the company has asked to step down in the aftermath of its accounting disaster. The other four senior executives to get the chop are UK managing director Chris Bush, UK finance director Carl Rogberg, commercial director for food John Scouler and head of food sourcing Matt Simister.
Revelations of the Tesco’s accounting woes have so far lost the company around £3 billion of its market value, as panicked investors have rushed to dump their shares. Tesco also issued its third profit warning of the year in September, following its biggest drop in sales for 40 years.
In an effort to turn things around for the struggling retailer, new CEO Dave Lewis has taken up his role a month earlier than planned.
