Sir Ken’s follow-up blast at Morrisons

THE founder of Morrisons supermarket has launched a fresh attack on its management ahead of what’s expected to be a disappointing festive sales update tomorrow.

Sir Ken Morrison told the Mail last night: ‘I think management has been somewhat remiss in the way they are running the business. They can’t make excuses all the time.’

He made his comments about Britain’s fourth biggest grocer despite incoming chairman Andy Higginson staging a peace meeting in recent weeks, the Mail can disclose. This followed Morrison’s outspoken comments at the firm’s annual meeting in June.

Morrison, who’s family still hold a minority stake in the firm, had said the group’s losses were ‘disastrous’ and criticised the strategy being used by chief executive Dalton Philips, accusing him of speaking ‘bull****’.

However, despite Higgins on’ s ef f or t s , Morrison appears to still be just as vexed, although choosing less incendiary language. ‘The only thing I’m interested in is performance. I knew him from before. It was more about reintroducing him to me and making the acquaintance.

‘He didn’t get into too much detail about the plan. I am looking forward to hearing the plans in the future.’

Tomorrow the grocer is likely to say underlying thirdquarter sales fell by 3.8pc making it the worst performer among the Big Four grocers.

Morrisons, along with its rivals, have been suffering fierce competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl.

While Morrisons is poised to have been the laggard, tomorrow’s update will show early signs that Philips’ turnaround is gaining traction, as a 3.8pc fall in third- quarter sales is an improvement on the 6.3pc fall seen over the previous quarter. Chris Robinson, a finance director in one of Tesco’s food divisions, is understood to be the latest senior figure to be suspended in connection with its financial scandal in which profits were i nflated by £263m. The company did not return calls for comment.