Tesco suspends execs as inquiry launched into profit overstatement

antrobus

wymondham wrote: »

... but all this does not answer the burning question, which is are their frozen peas still cheaper than Morrisons?

I think you'll find they're cheaper in Aldi.

princeofpounds wrote: »

Enron were doing all sorts of things. .....

Well yeh, but the Tesco thing still reminds me more of what went wrong at Wickes. Which was a few years before Enron, so I appreciate the fact that almost everybody but me has forgotten about it.

Nikkster

antrobus wrote: »

Well yeh, but the Tesco thing still reminds me more of what went wrong at Wickes. Which was a few years before Enron, so I appreciate the fact that almost everybody but me has forgotten about it.

In case anyone else is wondering, as I was, here is a link (no idea how reliable it is, just found it in a search):
http://uk.practicallaw.com/0-100-2461

MoneyMate

antrobus wrote: »

I think you'll find they're cheaper in Aldi.



Well yeh, but the Tesco thing still reminds me more of what went wrong at Wickes. Which was a few years before Enron, so I appreciate the fact that almost everybody but me has forgotten about it.

Birdseye Peas are cheaper at Sainsbury's

BobQ

So why would they do it? Were they trying to fix their annual bonuses?

robin58

BobQ wrote: »

So why would they do it? Were they trying to fix their annual bonuses?

No doubt they were trying to make the reduction in profits and the future dividend reduction a more sweeter pill to take.

What really gets me, it took an internal whistle :whistle: blower to tell the Tesco boss there was a problem!!

Loughton_Monkey

robin58 wrote: »

No doubt they were trying to make the reduction in profits and the future dividend reduction a more sweeter pill to take.

What really gets me, it took an internal whistle :whistle: blower to tell the Tesco boss there was a problem!!

The existence of a whistleblower implies deliberate 'mis-accounting' is at play.

But the Chairman seems to have the most cogent and unequivocal analysis of the situation...

Tesco chairman Sir Richard Broadbent rebuffed criticism that he should have discovered the issue sooner.

"Things are always unnoticed until they have been noticed." he said.

This is impossible to disagree with and proves he's 'on the ball'.

Such pearls of wisdom caused me to notice that there is always gin in the bottle in my fridge until it is empty. This is something I had never noticed before.....

danothy

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

gin in the bottle in my fridge

Am I right in thinking that one only keeps spirits in the fridge when they are "in play"?

Gangaweed

It says a lot that they missed a misstatement of 20% of net profit.

That's a pretty huge oversight.

SunReader

Like the Roman empire some businesses can only grow so big until downfall. Tesco peaked years ago and the only way is down now.

Tesco are working the numbers here and trying to paper over the cracks hoping the City as well as their remaining customers maintain confidence, before the trickle inevitably turns into a flow.

Squeezing their suppliers and staff even further is now proving to be a diminishing returns business, and faced with stiff competition these accounting 'errors' show desperation.

Remember Woolworths?

System

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Such pearls of wisdom caused me to notice that there is always gin in the bottle in my fridge until it is empty. This is something I had never noticed before.....

There is a visual scale on the side of the bottle, for people who can't do the maths.
How it works is that when the liquid miniscus is level with the bottom of the neck, it means the bottle is full. When you can hardly see any in the bottom, it means it is empty.

Of course it is a very innacurate graph because it doesn't show all the empties in the bin, nor the unopened bottles in the cabinet.