Tesco new finance chief to start sooner

London - Tesco, Britain's biggest grocer, said Alan Stewart, will join the firm as chief financial officer from Tuesday, rather than the previously announced date of December 1.

Stewart quit from the same role at Marks & Spencer on July 10 to join Tesco but had since been on a period of so called "gardening leave".

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.