End of an era for supermarket retailing

This week marks a landmark for the UK grocery retailing market. Sir Ken Morrison (pictured above opening a new Morrisons store) is retiring as chairman of the business founded by his father after over 55 years in the industry.

The 76-year-old Yorkshireman joined Morrison in 1952, when it was a market stall in Bradford selling eggs and butter. Morrison today has more than 370 stores across the UK, serves 9m customers a week and has annual sales of over £12bn.

Sir Ken has had a troubled relationship with the City investors and analysts in recent years. Indeed, with his braces, Morrison tie, thick Yorkshire accent and notorious stubbornness, he has always been something of a City outsider.

In particular he came in for some strong criticism of the strategy to acquire Safeway back in 2004, which resulted in many integration problems. However, most observers now view that acquisition as a success, with Morrison’s now firmly established as a national supermarket chain and taking market share away from the other members of the Big Four (Tesco, Asda & Sainsbury’s.

Sir Ken has always a had a reputation as a leader who likes to get involved in the detail of his business.

Allan Leighton (the former chief executive of Asda) quoted in the Telegraph, says that Sir Ken’s attention to detail is legendary.

“He pretty much invented the phrase ‘retail is detail”

One of Sir Ken’s best achievements was the invention of the Market Street concept in the 1980s, he says. This was essentially a “street in a store”, selling different foods - from pies to fish - adding both theatre and diversity to the shopping trip.

Sir Ken was also one of the first retailers to put fresh fruit and vegetables together along the back wall of the shop, something that is commonplace now.

“When we were at Asda, he was the guy we looked to and his were the stores we learned the most from,” says Leighton.