Reuters reports that Morrisons is the latest British supermarket group to be targeted by activist shareholders over the amount of unhealthy food it sells.
Responsible investment group ShareAction said it, along with seven institutional investors managing US$1.1 trillion between them, had written to Morrisons Chairman Andrew Higginson ahead of the grocer’s annual shareholders’ meeting calling on it to boost sales of healthier food and drink products.
Last month market leader Tesco agreed to increase healthy food options at operations in Europe and Britain to appease investors co-ordinated by ShareAction who had filed a landmark shareholder resolution to force the issue.
ShareAction has also previously targeted Barclays and HSBC on the issue of climate change.
The investors want Morrisons to disclose the share of total food and non-alcoholic drink annual sales by volume made up of healthier products, and to publish a long-term target to significantly increase that share.
The Morrisons investors signing the letter included NEST, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, JO Hambro Capital Management and Castlefield Investment Partners.
