NEW Morrisons boss David Potts, who started at the Bradford-based supermarket last week, has bought a stake in the business.

The former Tesco executive who took over from ousted chief executive Dalton Philips last week has bought half a million Morrisons shares for £1.045 million.

Mr Potts, who has joined former Tesco colleague and new Morrisons chairman Andrew Higginson at the helm of the UK’s fourth largest supermarket, paid 205.85p a share.

He has been charged with turning round the troubled business after it recently unveiled a halving of trading profits in 2014 to the lowest level for eight years and a £792 million loss after write-downs, including its property portfolio.

Meanwhile, Mr Higginson says Morrisons will aim to woo back shoppers by rebuilding trust in the brand and its pricing.

He said that all the ‘big four’ supermarkets –Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrisons – had lost their way on pricing and shoppers had voted with their feet, boosting the rise of German-owned discount chains such as Aldi and Lidl which have major UK expansion plans.

Mr Higginson said: “The supermarkets collectively have believed they didn’t have to be any cheaper, that they could charge a little bit more and that was a collective mistake.

“The supermarkets got seduced into this idea of widening margins during a recession and that meant putting up prices and customers twigged that and voted with their feet.

“All the supermarkets have had a difficult few years and perhaps they’ve slightly lost sight of the things they’ve always been very good at which is looking after customers and giving them great prices.

“The harsh truth is that our destiny is in our own hands, we have the ability to make this business a winning business for customers and it’s really down to the management now to make sure that happens.

“The number one priority is to get the stores humming, really get customers back in andoffer them great Morrisons products at great prices.”

Meanwhile, discounter Aldi has unveiled plans to open almost twice as much new store space this year than its nearest rivals. It will add just over a million square feet of floor space, around 60 stores, in 2015. This is a bigger expansion than Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco put together.

Budget chain Lidl will also add 340,000 sq ft of new space.