A 14 per cent fall in like-for-like sales over the past four years was a sign thatBradford-based Morrisons had lost touch with customers it's chairman has said.

Former Tesco man Andrew Higginson, who joined Morrisons in January and instigated a clear-out of former senior management, told the Bradford Chamber of Commerce annual dinner that the new regime was determined to turn round the business and win back shoppers.

Morrisons' sales have declined in the face of growing competition, particularly from discounters Aldi and Lidl, whose combined market share reached ten per cent for the first time in the 12 weeks to November, while Morrisons sales dropped by 1.7 per cent over the period.

Mr Higginson said Morrisons was going " back to the future" in its bid to win back trade by being more, not less, quirky than its competitors.

In future it would make more of its position as the UK's second largest food manufacturer where 50 per cent of own label goods are processed internally, including in its own abattoirs and fresh fish caught by its own trawler fleet.

He said: "One of the hardest things to do in the supermarket sector is to differentiate yourself. Morrisons is one of the most differentiated of all the supermarkets and as we focus back on the superstores we are in a sense going back to the future. Historically, Morrisons was the most quirky with it;s own butchers and fishmongers. A lot of that was in danger of being lost on the alter of productivity

" We are refocussing our on in-store skills and will continue to make them a bigger part of the offer as we go forward.We need to be able to do things that our competitors can't do."

Mr Higginson said Morrisons was focusing on its 500 superstores after selling its convenience stores, each of which was losing £300,000 .

The new regime was undertaking a turnaround of the business and not just tweaking things.

"We are now trying to move to reshape and refocus the business. It's quite a painful process.

"We had the painful decision to make to cut the head office. We have had to right-size the office - to use that terrible jargon - and 720 jobs have gone out of 3,000 people at head office and we know how painful that has been.

"It's a very significant number and if you go round the offices you will see large swathes of empty desks and it affects the mood and the culture of the business but it's something we had to do, he said.

Progress was being made. Morrisons has reduced its debt to below £2 billion for the first time in four years; had a strong balance sheet and had started to see volume grow in stores.