David Potts, the retailer who steered the supermarket chain Morrisons into private equity ownership, is stepping down after nine years as chief executive.
He will leave in November, and be succeeded by the former head of the grocery retailer Carrefour France, Rami Baitiéh.
Potts’s departure comes a little more than a year after the completion of the £7bn takeover of the retailer by the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) after an intense bidding war.
Morrisons said Baitiéh would “work closely with David Potts to ensure a smooth handover period”.
Sir Terry Leahy, the former boss of Tesco who is now a senior adviser at CD&R, thanked Potts for his “nine years of dedicated service to Morrisons” and its customers.
Praising Potts’s “extraordinary service”, Leahy said he had “skilfully led the renewal of the Morrisons brand as well as navigating several twists and turns during his tenure, including the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis”.
He said Potts left the company “poised for growth”.
The group’s most recent annual results, released in March, showed it slumped to a £1.5bn loss during its first full year in private equity ownership.
A substantial portion of the £1.5bn pre-tax loss for the period was related to finance costs of £593m, which included interest payments on external debt, as well as interest on its lease liabilities and interest payable on loans to group companies.
Potts said his tenure as Morrisons chief executive had been “the privilege of my working life”.
He said he and Leahy had had “several conversations about succession since the buyout in 2021”.
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Potts added: “We had a clear understanding that I was prepared to devote several more years to Morrisons if that was required, but that if an outstanding successor was identified who could lead Morrisons for the long term, then I would step down.”
Potts said he intended to take a short break with his family before looking for “further ways to “contribute to business and to the UK’s economic recovery from the pandemic”.
The announcement came as Morrisons reported a fifth consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth over the 13 weeks to the end of July, which the supermarket attributed to its lower prices and new loyalty scheme.
Leahy said Baitiéh would bring “energy, innovation, and dedication to expanding Morrisons’ loyalty programmes and digital reach”.
Baitiéh said he intended to help Morrisons “build on the strong links the company has with its loyal customers and the communities where it operates”.
