The owners of Britain’s fourth-largest supermarket chain are drawing up plans to identify a new chief executive a year after acquiring it in a £7bn deal.
Sky News has learned that MorrisonThe majority shareholder, US private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), has hired Egon Zehnder International to bolster the grocery store’s executive ranks.
Retail industry sources said this weekend that Egon Zehnder had been approaching potential recruits “with an eye” to find a successor to David Potts, who has run Morrisons since 2015.
Potts is not expected to leave until at least 2024, and is focused on improving the Bradford-based company’s performance after it was recently displaced as Britain’s third-biggest supermarket chain by German discounter Aldi. .
Several internal candidates are expected to compete for the chance to replace Potts, according to inside sources.
One said CD&R was working “continuously” on succession planning at Morrisons and its other portfolio companies.
Sir Terry Leahy, a former Tesco chief executive who has a long-standing relationship with CD&R, will play a key role in the succession planning process as Morrisons chairman.
Earlier this year, Trevor Strain, Morrisons’ chief operating officer and formerly its chief financial officer, left the company, having long been seen as Potts’ inevitable successor.
Morrisons delisted from the London Stock Exchange last year, ending a 54-year run as a publicly traded company.
Recent industry data showed that Morrisons had been usurped by Aldi in terms of market share, a milestone in a sector that rarely sees membership change from its upper ranks.
Morrisons reached an agreement earlier this year to rescue the convenience chain McColl’s, whose market share was not included in that data.
CD&R and Morrisons declined to comment.
