Pair join board at troubled Tesco

Embattled supermarket Tesco has announced that it is beefing up its board as it battles sliding sales and faces a probe into a £250m accounting blunder.

The retailer has named Richard Cousins, chief executive of catering giant Compass, and Mikael Ohlsson, former boss of Ikea, as non-executive directors.

Both men will join the board on November 1. Shares rose 1%.

Chairman Sir Richard Broadbent said: “I am delighted to welcome Mikael and Richard to the board and know that their broad skills and experience will be a real asset to the company in the coming years.

“Mikael and Richard have been updated on and are wholly supportive of the steps being taken by the new management team to rebuild trust in Tesco and to focus all the resources of the business to deliver value to our customers.”

Tesco is seeking to turn around its fortunes under new chief executive Dave Lewis.

Britain’s biggest supermarket group has slashed its dividend and issued a series of profit warnings as the sector faces a price war amid a squeeze on market share from discount retailers Aldi and Lidl.

Meanwhile it is facing a probe by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority after it emerged that it had overstated expected half-year profits by £250 million.

Last week it emerged that more than 4,000 head office and corporate staff were being sent to work one day a fortnight on the shop floor in the run-up to Christmas, in an initiative by Mr Lewis to try to reconnect those running the group with customers.

Analysts at Shore Capital welcomed the announcement of the new appointments, describing it as “a light beam of good news from Tesco in a sea of darkness”.

“Both gentlemen are expert in their field, highly regarded by investors and bring much-needed international consumer market experience to the fold for the struggling supermarket group,” they said.

“NEDs (non executive directors) rarely put pennies into the tills but in this instance we welcome the joint appointments and hope that it represents the recommencement of more effective governance of Tesco.”