Business Diary: June 8

When founder was the forgotten man

WHO is the one person you make sure receives a copy of the company annual report? It's the company founder. Obvious really.

A wave of embarrassment swept through board members at Morrisons' annual general meeting last week when Sir Ken Morrison told them he hadn't been sent a copy.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sir Ian Gibson, who replaced him as chairman in 2008, looked sheepish and promised to "takeit up with the postal department". A wonderful piece of under-statement.

Sir Ken, ever the Yorkshireman, questioned the cost of this year's glossy report. It was 200,000, said Sir Ian.

Surely Sir Ken wouldn't have spent that much.

Pay check

STAYING with Morrisons, Sir Ken had some words to share about directors' remuneration.

He told the annual meeting: "We are in a period of austerity, I'm

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

told, and we have a new government. You ought to be looking at a policy of keeping rewards in reason."

New chief executive Dalton Philips has a pay and benefits package worth up to 6.1m.

Behind the till

SPEAKING of Dalton Philips, the 41-year-old Irishman has been spending the last two months finding his feet on a company induction programme.

He's relishing the experience, he told shareholders, and has even spent time behind a till. Mr Philips said: "It's great when you join a new company and get the opportunity to spend time in the business understanding and learning.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Too often you have new people who join and don't get the opportunity to really understand what's in the business."

He has another month to go before getting stuck into the top job.

Back to the land

THIS is the last story this week on Morrisons, we promise. Since stepping down as chairman in 2008, Sir Ken Morrison has been applying himself to farming in North Yorkshire.

Sharing some of the frustrations of his new pastime, he said: "It never rains in the right field."

Carry on, nurses

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

CONGRATULATIONS to the good women of R3, the group for insolvency practitioners, who raised nearly 2,000 for charity at their Ladies Luncheon in Leeds on Friday.

The seventh such event took place at the Met Hotel in the theme of emergency services, with a large number of guests in nurse uniforms and flashing police helmets.

A charity raffle was held in aid of Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which relies entirely on donations to meet its 7,200-a-day running costs.

Nicky de Whytell, the former journalist who now manages the charity's fundraising activities in West Yorkshire, told members: "You can't put a price on trying to save somebody's life."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Steven Smith, the criminal solicitor from Rotherham and author of Boozers, Ballcocks and Bail, was

guest speaker.

Addressing a room full of accountants and lawyers, he said: "I deal with villains, rogues, charlatans and sharks. Looking around this

room I have to say how comfortable

I feel."

High hopes

AS England's footballers make their final preparations for the World Cup in South Africa, a corporate financier from Yorkshire is

also gearing up to represent his country in a very different setting.

Graham Pearce of KPMG in Leeds has been chosen to run

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

for England in the Snowdon International Mountain Race on July 24.

It has been a hectic period for Mr Pearce – last week he was part of the KPMG team that advised Barclays Private Equity about its 16m investment in Middlesbrough-based Wilton Engineering Services.

"Running is in the family," Mr Pearce told Diary. "My favourite race is anything off piste in the Lakes or Dales."

And what does he consider the best race of all?

His heart is clearly in the hills, because he believes nothing

can top a run to the summit of Ben Nevis.

Related topics: