Bolland takes top job at Morrisons

Heineken chief executive Marc Bolland has been appointed chief executive of Morrisons, ending months of speculation and rumour about who would succeed the incumbent Bob Stott.

Bolland has resigned as Heineken's chief operating officer and will leave the company on July 1 to take up his new role at Morrisons on September 1.

In a statement, Bolland said: 'This is a great opportunity for me to head one of the UK's leading companies and I am looking forward to the challenge.'

However, there is still confusion about where ultimate power will reside. Bolland will take control of the executive board from Sir Ken Morrison when he starts the job. But in an interview this morning on the BBC's Today programme, Sir Ken said that he would continue to contribute to the running of the company until his retirement, which he has stated will be no later than January 2008.

M+M Planet Retail analyst Bryan Roberts commented: 'He is Morrison, so it's clearly going to be a painful transition. This does raise a question mark over the autonomy of the new chief executive if the puppet-master is still lurking in the background.'