Sir Kenneth Duncan Morrison CBE (20 October 1931 – 1 February 2017) was an English businessman, Life President, and former chairman of

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headq ...

(Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC), the fourth largest supermarket group in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. He was the son of William Morrison, who founded the company.

Early and private life

He was the youngest child of William Murdoch Morrison and Hilda Morrison (née Ryder), who owned a small grocery chain set up in 1899. He was born in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, and was brought up by five elder sisters. Whilst at

Bradford Grammar School Bradford Grammar School (BGS) is a co-educational independent day school located in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Entrance is by examination, except for the sixth form, where admission is based on GCSE results. The school gi ...

, Morrison worked in the family provisions business in the school holidays. He was given jobs such as working on the market stalls or checking eggs against lamps for defects. Morrison served in the

Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...

as a National Serviceman, and was demobilised in 1952. His father was seriously ill, so Ken began to manage the business at the age of 26. Morrison received the CBE in 1990 and was knighted in the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various ...

list for services to the food retailing industry. In the '' Sunday Times Rich List 2007'' ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK he was placed 35th with an estimated family fortune of £1,595 million. Today, his family retain 15.5% of the company. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2013, his family's wealth was estimated to be £1.05bn, making them 83rd in the list of the 1,000 richest people in the UK. Morrison lived on the outskirts of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, in Myton Hall, Myton-upon-Swale, North Yorkshire, with his wife Lynne, and his two youngest children.

Business career

By 1956, he was the chairman and managing director of a small group of shops, the embryo of what was to become a formidable retail presence, a household name throughout the UK and the largest public company headquartered in Yorkshire. Whilst the family business was named after his father, Morrisons' head office "Hilmore House" is named after his mother. The original Hilmore House was located in Thornton Road, but moved to larger premises at Gain Lane as a result of the takeover of

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, del ...

. Just after the takeover of

(completed in 2004), Morrison went from a respected industry figure to a target for disgruntled investors furious at the mishandling of the transaction. Previously, in 2001, Morrison had described Safeway as an "indigestible meal" for his supermarket group. Following the Safeway takeover the Morrison group issued five profit warnings, due to integration problems. Morrisons later recovered its financial performance and in September 2006, it announced a £134.2m half-year pre-tax profit for the 25 weeks to 23 July 2006. This was a company record, and convinced City commentators that Morrisons had recovered. Morrison was the longest serving chairman of a top 100 public company in the UK. In June 2006, Ken Morrison announced that he would relinquish executive control of the company, which came into effect from 4 September, making way for the appointment of Dutchman Marc Bolland as chief executive. He announced that it was his intention to stand down as the chairman and director of the company in January 2008, and take the honorary post of Life President. He eventually stood down on 13 March 2008.

Death

Ken Morrison died on 1 February 2017 after a brief illness. He was 85 years old.

References

External links

Morrisons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Ken 1931 births 2017 deaths British retail company founders English people of Scottish descent English billionaires Businesspeople from Bradford Knights Bachelor Businesspeople awarded knighthoods Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Bradford Grammar School British chairpersons of corporations Royal Army Ordnance Corps soldiers 20th-century English businesspeople