Sir Ken Morrison is set to take a back seat in the running of Morrisons, it has been reported.
The announcement, made just before today’s annual general meeting, said Sir Ken is to step back from day-to-day decision making.
The AGM comes two weeks after Morrisons announced its fourth profits warning since the takeover of Safeway.
Morrisons said Sir Ken would stay on for at least another year and will remain chairman of the plc board, which meets once a month, but is to step down from the operations board which meets every week to make key decisions.
Sir Ken is set to fact pressure at the AGM today to appoint outside directors and outline the company’s future succession plans.
At the moment, Morrisons is looking for four non-executive directors in a bid to pacify shareholder demands for greater corporate governance.
In a trading statement issued this morning, Morrisons said total like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, were up 2.3 per cent for the 15 weeks to 15 May.
But like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, for the original Morrisons stores were down 2.3 per cent.
Sales at former Safeway stores which have been converted to the Morrisons name were up 12.5 per cent, while the Safeway stores awaiting conversion saw a sales rise of three per cent. Morrisons also announced that it had appointed Richard Pennycock as its new finance director.
Pennycock, who is currently group finance director of the RAC, will join Morrisons on October 1.