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William Morrison hands over the reins to Dalton Philips

By approaching Dalton Philips of Canadian grocer Loblaw with a proposal to be the next boss after turning a blind eye to its internal candidates,William Morrison has sparked talks of a an ambitious expansion.

The fourth largest supermarket group in Britain has held its coveted position as the quickest growing of the nation's top grocery chains,over the past couple of years.

Analysts are of the opinion that the group needs to shelve its plans to further open shops  in Britain and try its hand at online retailing and  non-food markets .It can  also consider to expand its operations to outside of Britain.

The new CEO in news has a vast wealth of retail experience and has also worked from the year 1998 to 2005 in the American group Wal-Mart's,rising to be the chief operating officer at Germany and later at the Irish supermarket group Brown Thomas as the chief executive.Currently he is at Loblaw,the largest food distributor of Canada,which has a revenue turnover of eighteen billion pounds and over 1000 stores.

Clive Black,an analyst at Shore Capital,perceives the new appointment as  a  sign of Morrison branching out of Britain;while a few others are worried that the firm may end up risking a formula meant for success.

Mark Bolland,from whom Philips will take over,stayed loyal to Morrison's traditional outlook on fresh foods and low prices .

Marks and Spencer, the British foods and clothing group,has poached Bolland .Ever since the two groups have been at loggerheads regarding Bolland's date of departure.A compromise is expected as soon as Philips takes over Morrison in the month of March,though Bolland is under contract till November at Morrison.Talks are on between the two groups.

Richard Pennycook,the finance director of Morrison,was expected to become the chief executive and now there are doubts of his stay at the company

The shares of Morrison closed at 292.8 pence, down 0.6 percent.The value of the business is estimated to be around 7.8 billion pounds.