New Morrisons CEO takes up post

29/03/2010

The Yorkshire-based supermarket chain Morrisons has welcomed its new chief executive Dalton Philips into his new post.
Mr Philips moved from Canada to begin the job at the Bradford-based retailer. He was previously chief executive for Asda owner Wal-Mart.
Since January 2007, Mr Philips worked as chief operating office of food group Loblaw, which is a Canadian, 1,000-strong retail chain. It is also the country's biggest food distributor.
Morrisons said its new chief executive would spend his first day visiting various areas of the business.
He succeeds Marc Bollard, who will be starting as Marks & Spencer's chief executive on May 1.
Mr Philips, 41, is a relative unknown in Britain's retail sector, but the group said on announcing his appointment that he had a "tremendous retail pedigree and a wealth of experience from senior retail positions around the world".
Before Loblaw, he was chief executive of Irish department store Brown Thomas and also previously chief operating officer of US retailer Wal-Mart's German operations.
Mr Philips, who is Irish, joins Morrisons at a resurgent time for the UK's fourth largest supermarket.
It recently reported a 21% hike in annual profits to £767 million for the 12 months to January 31, while like-for-like sales rose 6%.
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