Marc Bolland, chief executive of Wm Morrison, must eye the future with a certain amount of trepidation now that Sir Ken Morrison, the supermarket chain’s legendary chairman, has finally retired.

The truth is, the market priced in recovery at Morrison well before Mr Bolland had even outlined his strategic review last year. The shares were trading at 22 times forecast 2007-08 earnings at the beginning of last year, 26 times by mid-March and just more than 20 times the underlying earnings finally reported yesterday.