223 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
223 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
finance
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comment
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damianreece
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8374933
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-----
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# Morrisons tie-up could be one in the eye for Ocado's embattled bosses
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## Dalton Philips has wasted no time in pushing Morrisons in a variety of new
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directions.
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![Morrisons tie-up could be one in the eye for Ocado's embattled bosses][1]
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Dalton Philips, Morrisons chief executive Photo: PA
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[![Damian Reece][2]][3]
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By [Damian Reece][4], Head of Business 6:00AM GMT 11 Mar 2011
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[Comments][5]
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The chief executive of the Bradford-based grocer is injecting a streak of
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dynamism into the shopping aisles which his predecessor, Marc Bolland, is
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struggling to conjure up in his new job at Marks & Spencer.
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I'm sure Bolland doesn't regret for a moment switching jobs, but Philips is
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making it evident there was plenty of opportunity to go for at the grocer -
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opportunities he's making look more straightforward to execute than pulling
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the often obstinate M&S tanker round. That said, Morrisons is easily the
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larger business, with a market value of £7.4bn against M&S's £5.5bn.
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Maybe it's the mid-Atlantic bouncy management-speak that is baffling brains,
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but Philips gives the impression that Morrisons was full of low hanging
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strategic fruit when he arrived a year ago that he's happily picking off,
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slightly surprised it was all there to go for.
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Anyway, their relative progress will be interesting to watch.
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A decent set of full-year results from Morrisons, including a 17pc rise in
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dividend and a 12pc rise in earnings, was overshadowed by a £1bn cashback to
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shareholders which itself was forced into the background by more detail of
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Philips' growth plans.
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## Related Articles
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* [Morrisons to start selling food online, from Bradford via US][6]
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11 Mar 2011
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* [Wm Morrison ends 'solid' year with 1bn buyback][7]
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11 Mar 2011
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* [FreshDirect: New York's friendly grocer][8]
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11 Mar 2011
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He committed to opening an extra 1m sq ft of selling space by January 2014 on
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top of his original plan of 1.5m sq ft by January 2013. Trials of three M
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local convenience stores will commence this year and he's already announced a
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£70m investment online through the acquisition of kiddicare.com. This gets
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Morrisons into e-commerce and non-food in one go. When that deal was announced
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last month, however, it seemed only one half of the equation to me.
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_"The next step should be the acquisition of kiddicare's food equivalent so
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that too can be scaled up through integration with the Morrisons store
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network. Assuming Philips wants to keep his job that won't be Ocado, but
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something more modest (and viable) would fit the bill," _was my analysis at
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the time.
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Well, we got the answer yesterday with Philips unveiling a £32m investment in
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FreshDirect, the US online grocer. As with kiddicare, this brings more access
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to people with expertise in profitable online retailing at an acceptable
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price.
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As a footnote to my ramblings on this topic above, the chief executive of
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FreshDirect, Richard Braddock, is a determined critic of Ocado and its
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business model. His combination with Morrisons could make life even more
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interesting for Ocado's embattled management.
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**[damian.reece@telegraph.co.uk][9]**
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**[![][10] ][11][Retail vacancies][12] at [Telegraph Jobs][11] **
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**[![][13] ][12]**
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[X][14] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][15]
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* Share: [Share][14] [ ][16] [ ][17]
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[Tweet][18]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/damianreece/8374933/Morrisons-tie-
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up-could-be-one-in-the-eye-for-Ocados-embattled-bosses.html
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Telegraph
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## [Damian Reece][3]
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* ### [Finance »][19]
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* ### [Comment »][20]
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* ### [Retail and Consumer »][21]
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* ### [Business Latest News »][22]
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In finance
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[![Vodafone's spring clean prepares the ground for US deal][23] ][24]
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### [Vodafone's spring clean prepares the ground for US deal][24]
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[![Everyone who should have spotted the financial crisis, didn't.The Financial
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Services Authority, Bank of England, Treasury and our legislature, including
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the House of Lords, failed. Bank auditors didn't blow the whistle either.][25]
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][26]
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### [Auditors should not be blamed for the financial crisis any more than
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MPs][26]
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[![Independent Commission on Banking could destroy London's place as top
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financial centre ][27] ][28]
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### [Banking report could destroy London's place as top financial centre][28]
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[X][14] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][15]
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Share:
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* [ ][14]
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* [ ][16]
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* [ ][17]
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* [Tweet][18]
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* Advertisement
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![][29]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][30] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][31]
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Advertisement
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[Market Data »][32]
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sponsored features
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var puffs_8254894 = new Array();
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