LONDON: The intense pressure in Britain’s supermarket sector claimed its first scalp of the year with the departure of Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips following a plunge in Christmas sales from Britain’s No. 4 grocer.

Bradford, northern England, based Morrisons said it needed a new leader to return the supermarket to growth after it lagged larger rivals Tesco, Wal-Mart’s Asda and Sainsbury’s under Philips’s five-year watch.

The firm, which has been slow to expand into stronger parts of the market such as online shopping and convenience stores, posted the worst Christmas performance of Britain’s listed supermarkets, with sales at stores open over a year, excluding fuel, down 3.1 percent in the six weeks to Jan. 4.

That was slightly better than analysts’ average forecast of a 3.8 percent fall and a third-quarter drop of 6.3 percent. But after a 5.6 percent decline last Christmas, which made the comparison base for this year’s sales easier, the board decided the time was right for change.

“Our task now is to restore trading momentum in the business and return the business to growth,” said chairman designate Andrew Higginson, a former Tesco finance director, who will succeed Ian Gibson as chairman on Jan. 22.