Morrisons move Enhanced reputation pays off

IT IS to the credit of Yorkshire supermarket giant Morrisons, and astute management of David Potts, that it can emerge with an enhanced reputation after its profits more than halved and the firm slid out of the FTSE 100 financial index. Yet this is precisely what happened after the Bradford-based retailer, one of the beneficiaries of the Covid pandemic, chose to hand back around £230m of business rates relief to the Treasury rather than use it to boost profits or shareholder dividends.

Hopefully this responsible approach will be recognised – and followed by others. Equally the decision to extend its 10 per cent discount scheme for NHS workers is a welcome gesture when most of the country is outraged by the sector’s proposed one per cent salary increase. An approach that would have been approved by the firm’s founding father Sir Ken Morrison, Mr Potts appears cut from the same cloth – and this can only help Morrisons and its quest to return to the FTSE top table.

Liza Minnelli, actress/singer, 75; James Taylor, singer-songwriter, 73; Anish Kapoor, sculptor, 67; Jerry Levine, actor/director, 64; Courtney B Vance, actor, 61; Aaron Eckhart, actor, 53; Graham Coxon, musician (Blur), 52; Pete Doherty, musician, 42.

APPOINTMENT: Shell has chosen a former mining executive who spent more than two decades at rival BP as its new chairman.

The company said Sir Andrew Mackenzie, who was chief executive of miner BHP until 2019, will fill the role later this year. The Glaswegian was already tipped as a potential new chairman when he joined Shell’s board in October last year.