Morrisons boss under pressure at AGM

Ken Morrison will come under pressure over his running of UK supermarket group Morrisons today when he faces investors after a series of profits warnings.

The annual meeting comes just two weeks after Morrisons revealed it was continuing to suffer difficulties n seeing through last year’s £3bn (€4.4bn) purchase of Safeway.

Many in the City have expressed anger at the structure of the company’s board, particularly due to the chairman’s reluctance to appoint outside directors and his refusal to state any succession plan for when he leaves.

Morrisons is in the process of looking for four non-executives in a bid to make the board more accountable, although it has been reported that Sir Ken was unimpressed by candidates seen last week.

The National Association of Pension Funds had originally recommended that its members vote against the re-election of Morrison, but later changed its recommendation after the company came back with a series of improvements.

Bradford-based Morrisons had never warned on profits before the acquisition of Safeway.