Morrisons chairman Andrew Higginson said the grocer will not become a “mini-Tesco” following the appointment of David Potts as its new chief executive.

Andrew Higginson

Potts is a former executive at Tesco, where he worked alongside Higginson for 14 years.

Higginson would not be drawn on the details of Potts’ planned strategy, but told Retail Week: “To be fair to him, we’ve got to give him chance to get his feet under the desk, but I know that it will be very much about creating Morrisons, not trying to create a mini-Tesco. He’ll be focusing on the strengths of Morrisons.”

Higginson said Potts will need time to implement his strategy and said it could take “three to five years” to turn the grocer around, but believes the boss will focus on the strengths of Morrisons rather than trying to imitate the success he achieved at Tesco, where he served as retail and logistics director and headed up the supermarket giant’s Asian business.

He said: “We’ve set out that we want to focus on the core supermarkets and really get some trading momentum back into those. That’s very much what he’ll be focusing on and of course he’s a great trader, so we are optimistic about that.

“The rebuilding job for these supermarkets is not a five minute job. It’s going to take a while to turn that around.

“David will definitely have a personal impact in the business quite quickly, but changing customer behaviour will take three to five years to get it properly back on its feet.”

Potts’ appointment as Morrisons new chief executive this morning was described by some analysts as “not unexpected” given the time the duo previously spent working together at Tesco.

But Higginson maintained Potts was appointed following a “worldwide” search that was whittled down to four “very, very good candidates, any one of whom could have done the job really well”.

He added: “We were blessed really – it was a very attractive job, a lot of people wanted to go for it, the shortlist was excellent and we could have picked any one of those.

“I suppose the fact I knew David so well kind of de-risks the recruitment process quite a lot. You see people in an interview who have a good reputation, but you only see them in a short period of time. When you work with someone for as many years as I did, that’s quite helpful in terms of him being a known quantity.

“But it was a very good process. We looked around the world for the best candidate and we are delighted with David as a choice.”

Former Potts colleague, ex Tesco finance chief Laurie McIlwee, told Retail Week he believes the strong relationship between Higginson and Potts will be a “strength” for Morrisons.

McIlwee added: “There are very few pure retailers that are better than David. I think he’ll be immensely successful. He’ll keep it really straightforward and focus on execution. He’s a great coach and has a passion for customers, colleagues and the business.”

Some analysts have questioned the selection of Potts given the fact he has not worked in UK grocery since leaving Tesco in 2011.

But Higginson added: “People are entitled to their opinion, but he’s the best retail operator I’ve ever worked with and I don’t think good retail operators ever go out of fashion really.

“David has not been out of work in all the time since he’s left Tesco – he has just been doing a series of private things rather than PLCs.

“Just because I know David Potts you don’t just go and hire him. You have to look at the best in the market place and that’s exactly what we did.

“We wanted to get the best person out there and we think we have. We are very positive about the impact he can have. Bringing those strong retail disciplines to bear will be nothing but good.”

It is understood Potts was placed by Ridgeway Partners.