Shortly before Christmas, Marc Bolland was going round a Wm Morrison supermarket in Wimbledon, southwest London, highlighting how the business was finally giving customers in the capital what they wanted.

One minute he was stooping down to pick up a “Best” ready meal, one of many new premium products introduced to compete with Tesco Finest and Taste the Difference at JSainsbury. The next the 48-year-old was showing off the organic lamb and fresh beef cut up and prepared by a team of in-house butchers.

Not even one shopper's protests about how the store's bakery staff always burnt his rolls put the amiable Dutchman off his stride. He smiled, acknowledged the concerns and promised it would not happen again. Little seems to fluster the man charged with guiding the Morrisons empire into a new era.

Sir Ken Morrison finally steps down as chairman at the age of 76 this spring, to be replaced by Sir Ian Gibson. For the first time since Sir Ken's father founded the business in 1899, it will be run by people outside the family.

It was precisely Mr Bolland's vast experience of working alongside a dominant family that attracted headhunters looking for a new chief executive at Morrisons. Before flying over to Yorkshire two years ago, Mr Bolland spent two decades with Heineken, the Amsterdam-based brewer that is majority-owned by descendents of the founding family.

After joining Heineken with an MBA from Groningen University in Holland, he rose through the ranks, with spells in Africa and Slovakia, to the position of chief operating officer. His length of service was a big hit with the redoubtable Sir Ken, who originally had been keen to appoint an internal candidate to replace Bob Stott as his No2.

“I was impressed that he spent 20 years with Heineken,” he said after the appointment in June 2006. “I did not want someone who stays for three years then disappears.”

The pair also seem to have hit it off. Every Friday the two of them eat fish and chips in the staff canteen.

Mr Bolland speaks in glowing terms about the retail tricks he is picking up from Sir Ken - including one where he learnt how to put crisps next to a beer selection to encourage impulse buys. Such talk may alarm those in the City already worried about

Mr Bolland's lack of retail expertise and memories of the tough times international retailers such as Carlos Criado Perez, the former Safeway chief executive, have had in the UK. But some think that Morrisons is benefiting from a far less autocratic management than in the past. “There seems to be more delegation now and it seems to be paying off,” one banker said.

Mr Bolland will not be drawn on his long-term vision, stating that the early part of 2008 is all about celebrating Sir Ken's career. Before Christmas he spoke of wanting to give him the perfect send-off by turning the business around. He has made a good start.

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