It has been reported that the founding family of supermarket Morrisons has been in talks with private equity companies to take the retailer private.

The Morrison family are thought to hold between 9% and 10% of the grocery chain but have currently been unable to find a partner for any potential buyout.

“With Morrisons in such a distressed position, it’s not a surprise that some may be assessing an alternate route for the company,” Andrew Gwynn, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas told Bloomberg. “In the past however, the family has been extremely conservative, so going down the private equity route would be a fairly major departure from that.”