Unilever Executive Dave Lewis who becomes chief executive of the U.K.'s biggest retailer Tesco on Monday, replacing Philip Clarke. European Pressphoto Agency
LONDON— Dave Lewis will become Tesco PLC chief executive a month earlier than planned, taking over a global retail giant lurching from one crisis to the next.
The drastic move will see Mr. Lewis, a longtime Unileve PLC executive, start work at Tesco on Monday. He is likely to be extremely busy.
Tesco earlier Friday announced its second profit warning in six weeks, slashed its interim dividend by 75% and said it would reduce capital expenditure by £400 million ($664 million) this year.
The decision to release the slew of bad news before the new CEO started work was pushed through by Mr. Lewis in conjunction with the Tesco board, according to people familiar with the thinking of both Mr. Lewis and Tesco. Mr. Lewis, still officially a Unilever employee, has been working weekends over the past month to try to get a grip on the situation at Tesco, according to one of the people.
"Dave Lewis has got the bad news out of the way before he sits down at his desk," said Richard Clarke, an analyst at Bernstein.
Tesco's shares were down around 4% to 236 pence in midday trading, having earlier traded as low as 222 pence—the stock's lowest price since late 2003. To add to Mr. Lewis's problems, Tesco is without a finance director until December, when Alan Stewart, currently at Tesco's rival Marks & Spencer Group PLC, begins in the role. A spokesman for Tesco said there were no plans to bring Mr. Stewart's start date forward.
Mr. Lewis was appointed last month to replace Philip Clarke as Tesco chief executive. On the same day, the U.K. retailer said its profits would be lower than expected in the first half of its fiscal year, the second profit warning issued in Mr. Clarke's three years as CEO.
A Tesco spokesman said Mr. Clarke would now stand down a month earlier than planned, with Friday his last day in the office. Unilever said Mr. Lewis's replacement, Alan Jope, now would start Monday in London. Mr. Jope has been Unilever's head of Russia, Africa and the Middle East.
Mr. Lewis's departure is a big blow for Unilever, where he was seen as a possible successor to Chief Executive Paul Polman. But the split has been a relatively happy one. Mr. Polman, who spent 26 years at Unilever's arch rival Procter & Gamble Co , said last month he had met several times with Mr. Lewis to offer advice on succeeding as a CEO.
Mr. Lewis didn't respond to requests for comment.
In a July interview just days before being announced as the new Tesco boss, Mr. Lewis said he saw his main strength as "how, in tougher economic situations, you can make great brands more accessible." He will need to go beyond that to make Tesco, one of the world's largest retailers, the force it once was.