Could Norman be tempted back in store?

SUPERMARKET group Wm Morrison has been run in a style of legendary parsimony for decades. Chairman Sir Ken Morrison, now 73, famously hates waste and extravagance. For years, signs in the toilets of the company's head office urged people not only to wash their hands, but also to turn out the lights before they left.

But now, the vicious boardroom battle to determine the future of the crisis-hit food retailer has triggered a suggestion so bizarre no Morrisons-watcher could have predicted it - that this tightest of tight corporate ships might soon be the company to bring to Britain an Americanstyle executive pay deal of unprecedented lavishness.

From Morrisons' unlovely headquarters in Bradford could come the first signing-on deal worth tens of millions of pounds for a single individual at a public company.

And the lucky beneficiary of this suggested largesse? Step forward Archie Norman, whose career over the past two decades has stretched from finance director of Kingfisher and chief executive of Asda to Tory MP and chairman of telecoms group Energis.

At least that's what David Jones, former boss of Next and now Morrisons' deputy chairman, hopes will happen.

Jones has already secured one victory in his prolonged and excruciatingly public tussle with Sir Ken over how to revive the company following last year's disastrous £3.35 billion takeover of Safeway and no fewer than five profits warnings.

Ten days ago, Jones was threatening to go over Sir Ken's head and appeal to institutional investors to force the appointment of new non-executive directors. Only after a strained meeting last Monday did Sir Ken agree to three new nonexecs being named.

Now Jones's supporters are vigorously promoting the idea that the company's salvation should be put in the hands of Norman, 51, who was widely credited with bringing Asda back from the brink of bankruptcy in the early Nineties. And if necessary, they say, Norman might be offered a deal with a potential pay-out that could run not just into millions of pounds but into tens of millions.

As incentives go, it would be unprecedented for a quoted UK company.

Jones is being helped by his friend, Marcus Agius of investment bank Lazards, which advises Next. Coincidentally - and naturally all parties insist it is a mere coincidence - Norman is a consultant to Lazards.

But what does Norman say about running a supermarket group again? He professes intense irritation at seeing his name touted around as Morrisons' next chief executive. He told Financial Mail this weekend: 'I am increasingly fed-up about this. I think the idea is extremely unlikely and it is becoming more unlikely by the minute.'

He added: 'No one has put a proposition to me.' At least, not since Easter when Jones asked Norman if he would consider joining the company. Norman declined.

Norman insists he would not want to join a board whose members are so publicly at odds. And he would not want to be seen to shunt out Sir Ken, universally admired by his retailing peers before the Safeway disaster.

Furthermore, since quitting as an MP at the last election, Norman has been busy launching a business to raise money to take public companies private.

Of course, Norman's declared lack of enthusiasm for the Morrisons job may be no more than a tactical bargaining position. If shareholders become sufficiently dismayed about the company's position, they might consider paying virtually anything to buy in someone like Norman to steer the company to recovery.

Take Norman at his word, and there is a second possibility: he might not be interested in heading Morrisons the quoted company, but a role in a private vehicle that took over the group might prove more exciting - and more lucrative.

Norman is close to the hyperactive Royal Mail chairman, Allan Leighton, who has often voiced the idea that there is scope for a private company takeover of a large UK supermarket group.

There are problems with the notion of a private equity takeover of Morrisons. Despite the profits warnings, the company's share price has held up - it is still worth nearly £5 billion.

On Morrisons' own admission, the company has little idea of the state of its finances. No financial institution would commit funds for a takeover without assurances about future cashflow.

And no bid would happen without Morrisons' management opening the books. That in turn would most likely require the support of both Sir Ken - whose family still owns an 18% stake - and Amelia Morris of American fund manager Brandes, which holds more than 10%.

But as one of his more mischievous friends said this weekend: 'The thing about Archie is he's never interested - until he's really interested.'