After consulting with both his family and medical advisers we have taken their advice that John needs to concentrate his efforts on recovery and have reluctantly accepted his resignation.” Mr Dowd, who has been with Morrison for 30 years, will remain an employee and stay on the payroll.The news means Ken Morrison will take on the managing director role himself, having said in January that he would assume the position temporarily in Mr Dowd’s absence. Mr Morrison was the company’s managing director between 1956 and 1997.Analysts said the news was a blow to Morrison’s management succession plans. One said: “The plan was that John was going to progressively take over (from Mr Morrison) and had been doing that since last autumn. They may need to look outside now.”Morrison’s has been a tremendous growth story, with consistent increase in sales and profits in the face of competition from industry giants such as Tesco, J Sainsbury and the Wal-Mart owned Asda It has steadfastly avoided things like loyalty cards. Instead the group has concentrated on low prices and good customer service.The group has also flown in the face of corporate governance best practice by not having any non-executive directors on its board.

Last September Mr Dowd said: “We’re doing very well so far without them and we look at companies like Marconi and BT which do have them and we wonder what value they add.”. Brake Bros, the family-controlled food catering supply business, has put itself up for sale in a move expected to value the group at more than £350m. Brake Bros said the decision had been prompted by the forthcoming retirement of Frank Brake, chairman, who is 68. Compass, the contract catering business, and Ahold, the Dutch supermarket group, have been tipped as possible buyers. The shares soared 15 per cent to 680.5p, valuing the company at £350m, though analysts said it could fetch 700p to 800p a share.Mr Brake said: “It’s been a long time but after 40-odd years there comes a time when you have to think about the future. I’ll miss a lot of things but I’ll have more time now to play tennis, golf and I’m going back to skiing again. And I’ve got five grandchildren.”The sons of a pub caterer, Mr Brake and his brothers established Brake Bros to supply frozen poultry to caterers after they had left hotel and catering college.

The business floated in 1986 and expanded via a string of acquisitions and now includes brand names such as Larderfresh, Puritan Maid, Watson & Philip Foodservice and M&J Seafoods. It now has sales of £1.3bn and yesterday reported pre-tax profits of £40m, up 2.6 per cent on the previous year if exceptional items are excluded.Brake Bros has appointed Credit Suisse First Boston to help with the strategic review which could take several months.The group suffered a sharp drop in business after 11 September. But Ian Player, chief executive, said November and December had been strong with trade in line with expectations during January and February.. The merger, in 2000, of NFC and Ocean is making a lot of sense. The deal created Exel, a global freight handling, storage and haulage group which looks like avoiding the worst of the storm damage from the economic downturn. A slump in business activity in the technology and carmaking sectors, particularly in the UK, meant like-for-like sales were down and comparable profits were 7 per cent lower.Charitable observers regard that as a creditable performance, mainly because of the benefits of Exel’s new global scale. In particular, existing customers have been extending their relationship with the group into new territories, mainly Asia.