The Morrisons miracle continues. But can CEO Dave Potts keep it going?

Everything seems to be moving in the right direction for Britain’s number four supermarket chain which proves you can still win in a tough climate by being good at retail

Morrisons has been stacking investors shelves high after latest numbers led to a special dividend (PA)

Is it too much to call it the Morrisons miracle?

Amid a climate of seemingly all pervasive gloom on planet retail, Britain’s number four supermarket chain provided quite the burst of sunlight with its latest results.

They showed sales and profits motoring ahead as debt declined. There was even a special dividend on top of the normal one to keep its investors sweet. Sweeter than the refined sugar we’re really not supposed to eat.

All this is quite something given that there were very real questions about whether this business could survive when former Tesco man David Potts took on what looked to be one of the toughest jobs in retail three years ago.

There are those who would now point to Mr Potts as showing why it’s necessary to pay top dollar to put the right man into the CEO’s seat.

The flip side, of course, is that Morrisons paid his predecessor Dalton Philips top dollar to run the business into the ground.

There are a lot of struggling retailers paying their bosses top dollar to blame their problems on Brexit Britain’s torpid economy and the falling real incomes the Conservative Government has delivered to its people for the last 11 straight months.

That does make life extremely difficult for them, it is quite true.

But Morrisons, which operates in a cut throat part of the sector, one that is grappling with disruptive new entrants Aldi and Lidl, has proven that you can still do well if you happen to be, you know, good at retail.

Most CEOs simply get theirs for being average at it: They’re paid like superstars for being journeymen. It’s not just in retail that that happens.

If Mr Potts isn’t to join them he’s going to have to live up to the lofty expectations he’s created, and continue to deliver sales and market share growth.

Was there just a hint of things slowing a bit in his employer’s final quarter? The outlook statement was resolutely optimstic, so there’s that.

But there still seems to be a degree of scepticism out in the market. Morrisons shares enjoy a reasonably fancy rating, higher than Tesco, streets ahead of Sainsbury’s. But their performance has been up and down over the last year, without their ever really threatening to break out of a range.

Mr Potts has proven to be a canny operator. His Morrisons at Amazon partnership has helped fix the weakness the business had with the web.

Another deal, to supply McColls, the convenience chain, with products under the revived Safeway brand, also looks smart, and gives the group some much needed exposure to the convenience sector.

A couple more like those two would be just the ticket. They are, however, hard to find.

What is in Morrisons’ favour is that it is still small enough to be fleet of foot, and perhaps more flexible than its rivals. And, of course, it has Mr Potts.