Member Article

Morrisons appoints ex-Tesco chief

A former finance director of Tesco is to become the next chairman of struggling Bradford supermarket chain Wm Morrison.

Andrew Higginson, who left Tesco in 2012, is set to take the place of Sir Ian Gibson, who announced last month that he would step down.

The Bradford-based retailer has struggled to keep pace with rivals, prompting Dalton Philips, its chief executive, to unveil a £1 billion price-cutting campaign aimed at taking the fight to Aldi and Lidl.

Last month, it announced that it was cutting 2,600 jobs in order to eliminate tiers of management within its stores.

It also sold Kiddicare, the baby good retailer, incurring an embarrassing loss three years after buying it as a staging-post towards launching a full online food retailing operation.

Since the original deal, Morrisons has struck a partnership with Ocado, the price of which was widely seen in the City as being expensive for the supermarket chain.

Morrisons’ appointment of Mr Higginson, who is also senior independent director of BSkyB, owner of Sky News, means that he has stepped down from the board of Poundland, and Darren Shapland will take over from Andrew Higginson.

Mr Higginson spent 15 years at Tesco, including a stint as the finance director of Britain’s biggest retailer.

The man who was picked in his place, Philip Clarke, was ousted last week after three years of poor sales performance and discontent in the City.

Sir Ian Gibson, chairman of Morrisons, said: “Andy Higginson has a tremendous reputation and a distinguished career at the forefront of retailing in the UK and I am sure he will be a huge asset to Morrisons.

“I am very pleased to welcome him to the Board as deputy chairman and look forward to working with him to ensure a smooth transition to the chairman role.”

Andrew Higginson said: “I am delighted to be joining the Board of Morrisons. Whilst there are undoubted challenges in the industry at the moment, this is a fine business and I am looking forward to working with the great team at Morrisons who work hard every day to serve customers.”

“It’s been a great privilege to chair Poundland and to work with its tremendously talented team through such an important period in its development. I wish the company every success in the future.”

The recruitment search was carried out by MWM Consulting, a leading City headhunter.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .