Sir Ken Morrison sees significant drop in family wealth after supermarket chain’s dismal year

Sir Ken Morrison’s family wealth has dropped a total of £167m in the past twelve months, which makes the lifetime president of Morrisons the biggest Yorkshire faller in this year’s The Sunday Times Rich List.

Although Mr Morrison’s stake in the firm has been reduced to £283m, he still places as the fifth wealthiest in Yorkshire due to his £733m family fortune, despite the supermarket chain’s dismal start to the year.

Morrisons have struggled to compete with other major supermarkets in recent times, and at the start of the last month the Bradford-headquartered supermarket chain announced the foreclosure of 23 stores after reporting a pretax loss of £792m for the year ending 1st February - compared to a loss of £176m for the same period last year.

It is these losses that reduced the value of the Morrison family stake to £283m, but past share sales and other assets add a further £450m to the family’s total wealth.

Only last week, Morrisons announced it is set to create 5,000 new in-store jobsin an attempt to revive Morrisons’ dipping sales by boosting customer service, while 720 head office roles will be axed to restructure the company’s management.

Complied by wealth expert Philip Beresford, the Sunday Times Rich List, which will be published this Sunday, is the biggest edition since it first appeared in 1989.