A ‘MOTIVATIONAL’ poster that shows a man with a gun to his head has been removed from the Tesco Haverfordwest staff room after a complaint was made.

A staff member at the Haverfordwest store, who asked to remain anonymous, described the poster as “offensive” to people with mental health issues.

The poster reads: “Goodbye Haverfordwest, it’s been nice knowing you! Sales down last week, dot com availability down, waste up. Don’t panic, so what’s the plan now?”

“I find it very offensive as I have suffered with depression most of my adult life, I've even tried to commit suicide twice, and only last month a friend of mine did kill herself,” said the employee.

“How Tesco thinks it’s okay to put this up on the wall is beyond me, especially after the trouble they had recently with the mental patient Halloween costume.”

Ruth Coombs, manager for influence and change with mental health charity Mind Cymru, said: “We’re very disappointed to see this image and the lack of mental health awareness shown by Tesco with its use.

“Suicide is a very serious issue, which affects hundreds of people across Wales each year. We’d certainly urge Tesco to reconsider using imagery of this kind and think about the effect it can have on staff.”

A spokesman for the Tesco said: “This was clearly an error of judgement, in one store. The person responsible for the poster has apologised and it has been removed.”

Tesco recently hit the headlines after a ‘psycho ward’ Halloween costume it was selling after criticism that it helped fuel the “stigma” surrounding mental health issues.

The retailer later removed the item from its shelves, apologised for any offence caused and agreed to make a donation to Mind.

Tracey Price, director for Mind Pembrokeshire, added that the charity had recently offered mental health first aid training to the Haverfordwest store, in order to improve mental health awareness among staff members, but as yet had received no response.