Tesco chairman quits as profits error deepens

London

THE chairman of Britain's biggest retailer Tesco resigned on Thursday as the troubled supermarket group said that a huge accounting error began earlier than thought and contributed to plunging profits.

Chairman Richard Broadbent said that he would be stepping down after an independent investigation found that Tesco had overstated profits by £263 million (S$536.6 million) as a result of accounting errors stretching back to before 2013.

"The board's immediate focus must be on ensuring that we complete the transition to a new management team and that new and far-reaching business plans are put in place quickly," Mr Broadbent said in a statement that revealed Tesco's net profit had crashed to £6 mill…