Dive Brief:
- The Serious Fraud Office is currently looking into supermarket giant Tesco, and Unilever CEO Paul Polman is ready to help the office in its investigation though has not yet been asked to do so.
- Tesco reportedly overstated its profits by manipulating forward payments and costs, which boosted its on-paper performance by 263 million pounds.
- Polman is defending his relationship with Tesco, who he said Unilever has worked with "through good times and bad and will continue to do so."
Dive Insight:
This may be one bright light in months of bad news concerning the Tesco accounting scandal. Since the original news broke, Tesco shed and suspended several company executives, which eventually led to Tesco's chairman Sir Richard Broadbent stepping down after profits fell 92%. Since, Tesco shook up its senior management, estimated poor full-year earnings, and announced other sweeping changes.