Beyond one's Ken

Sir Ken Morrison ... no, that's not a halo.
Photograph: Chris Young/PA
For City investors, the announcement that Sir Ken Morrison, the 74-year-old chairman of the Wm Morrison supermarket chain, will step down in January 2008 could not have come soon enough. Many probably wish he would go sooner.

Morrisons had never made a loss until last year, the direct result of an acquisition that will be picked over by business schools as to how not to handle a merger.

Morrisons bought Safeway in March 2004 in order to go toe-to-toe with the big boys - Tesco, J Sainsbury and Asda. But the small Morrisons team around Sir Ken lacked the expertise to handle such a complicated merger. Morrisons lost control of its finances and issued no less than five profit warnings.