Morrisons CFO Richard Pennycook is to leave the UK retailer, the country’s fourth-largest grocer said in a surprise announcement today (25 June).

Pennycook has served as finance chief at Morrisons since 2005 and was tipped as one of the potential successors to former chief executive Marc Bolland, before the eventual appointment of Dalton Philips in 2010.

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His loss is likely to come as a knock for the retailer, which has seen its strategic direction criticised as sales have fallen behind the rest of the market. Morrisons posted a 1% fall in first quarter sales last month while, earlier this month, the chain’s founder and former CEO Sir Ken Morrison suggested that management was losing touch with its core consumer.

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