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Morrisons names its next chairperson

London - Morrisons named Tesco veteran Andrew Higginson as its next chair on Tuesday, turning up the heat on chief executive Dalton Philips as he tried to combat the supermarket's loss of market share.

Higginson, who spent 15 years as an executive director at rival Tesco, will replace Morrisons chair Ian Gibson when he retires in 2015. Higginson will join the Morrisons board on October 1 as non-executive deputy chair and chair elect.

"Philips can sleep easy for a couple more months, but after that the pressure will be on and it will be interesting to see how long he lasts," said independent retail analyst Nick Bubb.

Market share

Britain's fourth-largest supermarket chain Morrisons is on a par with Tesco as the worst-performing of Britain's so-called big four grocers, trailing Wal-Mart's Asda and Sainsbury's.

Industry data published on Tuesday showed Morrisons' sales fell 3.8% year-on-year in the 12 weeks to July 20 - the same percentage decline as Tesco - while Morrisons' market share dropped to 11% from 11.5%.

The company issued a huge profit warning in March and its shares have lost a third of their value this year.

Discount store

Last month at Morrisons' annual shareholders' meeting Philips' strategy was criticised by Ken Morrison, the son of the grocer's founder and a former boss of the firm.

Morrison, 82, who ran Morrisons for half a century before stepping down in 2008, said the grocer's performance was "disastrous" and called for its board to be bolstered with "retail knowledge".

Higginson, who left Tesco in 2012, was most recently the chair of discount store Poundland, the chair of clothing retailer N Brown and senior independent director of BSkyB. He said on Tuesday he would step down from Poundland.

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