What a day!
On August 20th 2014 I was lucky
enough to spend the day at Morrisons HQ in Bradford. This was something which had been organised for my 21st
but due to various things it had taken us nearly a year to finalise a
date.  |
| Outside HQ (Hilmore House, Bradford) |
As we pulled in to the car park I
couldn’t help but smile; how on earth did this “hobby” lead to me visiting the
Head Office of Morrisons Supermarkets?!
I guess the only thing to compare it to would be if you were to meet
your favourite celebrity – I was so excited!
We were greeted at the reception by
Guy and Claire, (both current employees and who were going to be our tour
guides for the day). The day began with
a tour of their office; the building was huge with 3 floors consisting of
various departments from buying to accounts to M Kitchen. We were introduced to other employees along
the way who had all been following my blog.
Everyone was so friendly and very welcoming. I think this must be the only place I could
talk passionately about Morrisons without getting too strange a look!
Sir Ian Gibson, the Chairman, then
came over to speak to me to hear all about the story behind the unusual
hobby. He was fascinated and extremely
interested in my story.
I then was shown around various meeting rooms and the main board room where all the important decisions are made.
I was then told I was going to meet
Dalton Philips, the CEO - to me this was like meeting royalty as it was someone
I had read so much about in various news articles about Morrisons. I then found myself in the middle of a
pricing meeting where all the main buyers were with Dalton discussing certain
products and their prices. They asked me
a few questions including "what is my favourite store" and "what
is my favourite product". To these
I responded with Cleveleys and Wrexham as my favourite stores and Cinammon
Whirls as my favourite product - if you haven't tried these or anything from
the Morrisons Bakery I would highly recommend it.
 |
| Dalton Philips |
I was then taken down to see where
the Morrisons van was parked and even got to sit inside it! Very impressive.
Apparently it is taken to various shows in the area - has anyone ever seen it
about on their travels?
Next on the agenda was lunch in the
staff restaurant. The menu was very
different to what I was use to at Morrisons Cafés - I decided to have the Turkey
and Sage Burger with Potato wedges - definitely a meal which should be
introduced to the next new menu change at the cafés.
Claire then gave a tour of the rest
of the building; it was a lot bigger than what I had expected. It had 3 floors
with all open plan desks and meeting rooms around the outskirts. We went past where the wine and food tasting
took place. Before an item goes on to
store shelves it is tried and tested in order to ensure it has approval before
it is put out to sell - this was something that I hadn’t realised before.
The trip ended with a gift from HQ - a fleece from one of the M Local stores:
All in all this had been a truly memorable
day – one which I will never forget.
Thank you so much to the staff at Morrisons HQ for allowing me to see
the story on the inside.
Next time: Special delivery from
Morrisons HQ…
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