Morrisons has offloaded its 10% stake in US online food retailer Fresh Direct for £45m, five years after it invested in the firm.

New York-based Fresh Direct has bought back the stake, Retail Week understands.

Morrisons first revealed plans to sell its holding in March 2014. By that time it had been decided that Fresh Direct was not a core part of its business. It originally acquired the stake for £32m in March 2011.

The Bradford-based grocer said today the stake was valued on its books at £31m and the sale price represented a premium of £14m.

Morrisons boss David Potts has been seeking to revive the grocer’s fortunes since taking over in March last year from Dalton Philips.

In March this year, Morrisons launched a supply tie-up with Amazon  as the etail Goliath prepared to launch its Fresh food offer in the UK.

Last week, Morrisons revealed it had renegotiated its tie-up with online grocer Ocado.

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