Tesco pulls pic of new finance chief

London - Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, has removed a photo on its corporate website of Alan Stewart, its newly appointed chief financial officer (CFO), after rival Marks & Spencer (M&S) complained he was technically still its employee.

After M&S was alerted to the picture on Wednesday, it asked Tesco to remove it from the site, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

Stewart quit as M&S CFO on July 10 and is on so-called gardening leave, unlikely to start work at Tesco before the end of the year due to a six-month notice period and a non-compete clause in his contract.

Tesco's website had earlier shown a head and shoulders photo of "chief financial officer Alan Stewart." There is currently no photo and Stewart is now described as "incoming chief financial officer."

Stewart's picture had sat alongside that of chief executive Philip Clarke, although Tesco said on Monday Clarke was being ditched as CEO to be replaced by Unilever's Dave Lewis on October 1.

Both M&S and Tesco declined to comment.