MORRISONS boss Dalton Philips is quitting in the wake of another set of bad trading figures, it was announced today.

His departure after five years at the helm comes as the Bradford-based grocer revealed a 3.1 per cent drop in like-for-like sales over the crucial six week Christmas trading period to January 4.

Former Tesco executive Andrew Higginson, who is due to become chairman later this month, said the company's board believed the push to return the business to growth was "best done under new leadership".

Mr Higginson said it was "time for a fresh pair of eyes" over the business, although he pointed out that the company's Christmas performance was not a factor in the decision to change leadership.

Mr Philips said: "I'm very sad to be leaving but when a board wants to make a change you accept that and move on."

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Morrisons also announced it is planning to close ten loss-making smaller stores, putting more than 400 jobs at risk.

A spokesman for the supermarket chain said it would announce which stores will close after staff were notified.

With the company's new chairman calling for a "fresh pair of eyes" over the business, shares in Morrisons surged by 4% or 7.65p to 184.5p.

The FTSE 100 Index was 13.7 points higher at 6515, even though oil stocks remained under pressure after the price of Brent crude fell to 45 US dollars a barrel.

BP was down 2.8p at 393.7p and Royal Dutch Shell fell 27.5p to 2099p.

Alongside Morrisons, shares in Tesco and Sainsbury's were up by 5.2p to 209.8p and 6.2p to 246.5p respectively.

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