If one mantra a director of a company should follow is "know your product", the latest recruit to the British boardroom comes up a little short. Wm Morrison's latest non-executive director, Paul Manduca, has yet to push his trolley through the aisles of any of the supermarket chain's stores.

The fund management veteran had been a regular shopper at the Barbican branch of Safeway, which is being integrated with Morrison following its £3bn acquisition last year.