Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips has announced that he is to leave the troubled supermarket amid falling sales.
The company said that Philips would stay until the company publishes its year-end results in March, but the search for his replacement had begun.
In its most recent report, Morrisons said that like-for-like sales excluding fuel fell 3.1% in the six weeks to 4 January.
The supermarket also said that it would close 10 loss-making stores in 2015, following a similar announcement by Tesco.
The news of a change in leadership was greeted positively by investors, with the share price rising 5.55% in the first 20 minutes of trading.
Morrisons has struggled in recent years to launch its own online shopping service and has been squeezed between premium supermarkets like Waitrose and European discount retailers such as Lidl and Aldi.
