Trivia

Morrison is the longest serving chairman of a top 100 public company in the UK. He can still be seen on the shop floor in the familiar short-sleeved shirt, ready for comments from customers.

Honours and Accolades

Bio

Sir Kenneth Duncan Morrison CBE is the chairman of Morrisons (Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc), the fourth largest supermarket group in the United Kingdom.

He is the youngest child of the late William Murdoch Morrison and Hilda Morrison, who owned a small grocery chain set up in 1899. He was born in Bradford on 20th October 1931, and was brought up by five elder sisters. Whilst the family business was named after his father, Morrisons' head office "Hilmore House" is named after his mother. The original Hilmore House was located in Thornton Road, but moved to larger premises at Gain Lane as a result of the takeover of Safeway.

Whilst at Bradford Grammar School, Morrison worked in the family provisions business in the school holidays. He was given jobs such as working on the market stalls or checking eggs against lamps for defects.

Morrison spent time the Royal Air Force as a National Serviceman, and was demobilised in 1952. His father was seriously ill so Ken was plunged into the management of the business and had to learn very quickly.

By 1956 he was the Chairman and Managing Director of a small group of shops, the embryo of what was to become a formidable retail presence, a household name throughout the UK and the largest public company headquartered in Yorkshire.

Just after the takeover of Safeway (completed in 2004), Morrison went from a respected industry figure to a target for disgruntled investors furious at the mishandling of the transaction. Morrison may have been right in 2001 when he described Safeway as an "indigestible meal" for his supermarket group.

Morrison also came under fire after famously calling his new work force "Lazy Southerners" and the Safeway's supermarkets "Tacky and Small"

Following the Safeway takeover the Morrison group issued five profit warnings, due to integration problems. Morrisons later recovered its financial performance and in September 2006, it announced a £134.2m half year pre-tax profit for the 25 weeks to 23 July 2006. This was a company record, and convinced City commentators that Morrisons had recovered.

As a result, Morrison's reputation is being restored, especially since the "Optimisation Plan", set out to restore profits, enabled gross profit margins to increase from 0.9% in March 2006, to 2.8% in July 2006. The target was to increase margins by 0.9% by 2009, which is currently being delivered ahead of plan.

In June 2006, Ken Morrison announced that he would relinquish executive control of the company, which came into effect from 4 September, making way for the appointment of Dutchman Marc Bolland as chief executive. He announced that it was his current intention to stand down as the chairman and director of the company in January 2008, and take the honorary post of Life President.