David Parkin on Morrisons, Leslie Silver, IoD success and strange gym experiences

IT will be interesting to see what new Morrisons chairman Andrew Higginson can bring to the moribund supermarket chain.

Struggling to keep up with its rivals and having lumps knocked out of it by continental upstarts Aldi and Lidl, the Bradford-based group is going through something of an identity crisis.

The veg counters of some of its bigger stores resemble a Waitrose in Tunbridge Wells, spraying cold mist over the exotic fare.

But then you go into its M Local convenience stores and they feel tacky, full of cheap products stacked high.

I don’t know how its online home delivery service is doing, but it is playing catch-up big style to all its rivals.

And then you have former chairman Sir Ken Morrison taking pot shots at the company at the AGM.

Sir Ken, who stood down as chairman at the Bradford-based supermarket in 2008, dismissed a recovery plan by chief executive Dalton Philips at the grocer’s AGM as bull***t and said the business had failed to run its core supermarkets well.

Soon after, the group announced plans to cut 2,600 jobs as part of a management shake-up.

Morrisons took a £163m writedown after selling its baby products retailer Kiddicare to turnaround investor Endless for £2m this year.

So in the midst of all this, comes Mr Higginson, who left Tesco in 2012 after 15 years.

He was Tesco’s finance director, so not a grocer by trade, but I think only Sir Ken can claim that honour when it comes to the recent stewardship of Britains’ big four supermarkets.

Higginson joins the Morrisons board in October and will replace Sir Ian Gibson when he retires in 2015. At least he knows something about retailing. Sir Ian didn’t know much and given he was chairman of media group Trinity Mirror when it had the vastly under-performing and grotesquely overpaid Sly Bailey as its chief executive, then I’m not sure how good he was heading a board of directors.

Higginson has been chairman of good retail businesses such as Poundland and N Brown Group and is senior independent director of BSkyB.

He will now need to work out whether Dalton Philips needs an arm around the shoulder or a kick up the arse.

It might be a bit of both, but what is clear is that the group needs to find a direction and steam towards it purposefully.

Let’s see what happens.

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I BUMPED into local business legends Leslie Silver and Bobbie Caplin in a restaurant last week.

Variety Club stalwart and former part-time clothing entrepreneur and full-time playboy Bobbie is a mere 82 years old while he informed me that Leslie, who founded Yorkshire-based Silver Paints after being demobbed following distinguished war service with RAF’s Bomber Command, celebrates his 90th birthday next year.

Leslie, charming as always, is revered as the last chairman of Leeds United who presided over real success for the team, when they won the First Division title in 1992.

I always remember how kind and interesting he was when I sat next to him on the top table of the Variety Club’s Yorkshire Business Awards at the Queens Hotel one Christmas years ago.

He’s led a fascinating life but is more interested in other people.

As he got up to leave the Italian restaurant, Amici, he explained he only lives down the road but at his age had decided to drive there.

He got into a gleaming Bentley parked outside and proceeded to drive the couple of hundred yards home.

Apparently the Aston Martin was in for a service.

He turns 90 early next year. What a man. What a life.

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IN the very grand surroundings of its headquarters at 116 Pall Mall – just around the corner from Buckingham Palace – the Institute of Directors this week opened a new venue for its members.

The business lobbying organisation opened a new café and working space on the lower ground floor of the building.

It is called Cafe Duke and I gather we have the organisation’s recently installed regional director for Yorkshire, Natalie Sykes, to thank for that.

Apparently the IoD held a competition to name the new venue and, having received more than 80 ideas, it then held two brain-storming sessions and Natalie’s was the one it decided to embrace.

Her suggestion is a nod to the Duke of York & Albany, life-size sculptures of whom can be found on the spectacular staircase in 116 Pall Mall as well as outside the IoD in Waterloo Place.

Apparently, when road tested with a range of members they liked the connection with history, aristocracy and its simplicity and felt that calling it a café would give the room a more casual feel that would reflect the work and social uses of the space.

Natalie said: “Pall Mall has a history dating back to the 1700s when many a Duke resided on the Mall. Cafe Duke not only salutes this, it appeals to all, including ladies, young directors and aspiring leaders.

“It is a great honour to know that Yorkshire has its own little stamp on 116 Pall Mall and one that is likely to stay for a century or more.”

I’m looking forward to my invite.

Perhaps I won’t mention over coffee my thought that with this small success, she has probably achieved more than her predecessor ever did.

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THOSE of you who are regular gym goers will be used to the little issues you get when you get a lot of people gathering to exercise.

Discarded water bottles, scattered paper towels used to mop perspiration, grunting and screaming by muscle-bound men pumping iron.

The one I find most disturbing is old men who dry themselves with their towels in a way that is the wrong side of flamboyant. I even saw one the other day using a hair dryer. Not on his head.

But this week I encountered one thing I have never seen before. The drinks holder on the cross training machine contained long pink false fingernails.

I think I need to get a new gym.

Have a great weekend.