Day 072 - 12 Jan 95 - Page 58


     
     1   Q.   Right, a budget that is set for the coming year that is,
     2        say, between -- if Mr. Rampton would stop interrupting
     3        I will ask some questions.
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  If Mr. Morris would not keep misinterpreting the
     6        witness's answer I might keep quiet.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If I may respectfully say so, I think it is
     9        better to keep quiet until the question has been asked, and
    10        then if there is an objection I can deal with it.  Start
    11        again.  What we have got, just supposing your figures were
    12        right, 15 per cent of 1.6 million is £240,000, so if it is
    13        15 to 16 per cent we are talking about a quarter of a
    14        million pounds?
    15        A.  Yes, sir.
    16
    17   Q.   You call that a budget?
    18        A.  Yes.
    19
    20   Q.   Ask whatever question you want in relation to that.
    21
    22   MR. MORRIS:  The budget figures or percentages that you are
    23        budgeting for, is that set by the regional supervisor or
    24        supervisory team or from head office?
    25        A.  It is set by the accounts office in head office.
    26
    27   Q.   If you go over that budget, what is the usual response of
    28        the accounts department or whoever is responsible to make
    29        sure he stays within that budget?  What is the response
    30        normally?
    31        A.  They look at profitability of the store overall; they
    32        do not just look at one account.  We are in a business, so
    33        they would give us advice, my supervisor would give me
    34        advice on my profitability.  We discuss areas in which
    35        there may be room for some improvement or there may be room
    36        for some extra spending.
    37
    38   Q.   But if you continually went over the budget guidelines,
    39        say, for labour costs, what would they do?
    40        A.  As I said, it is a budget.  Generally they do not make
    41        direct comparisons to the budget.  They do not say "You
    42        have gone over your budget so you have to bring it down."
    43        What they do is they assess your monthly P&L accounts, your
    44        profit and loss accounts, and they would assess the
    45        profitability of the store.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So if you have exceeded the figure for wages,
    48        if it was a figure in pounds or a percentage, but, for
    49        instance, even though the percentage was higher than they
    50        wanted, you have increased the turnover by 50 per cent you 
    51        might get browny points rather than criticism, is that 
    52        right? 
    53        A.  Yes.  The whole objective, one of the main objectives
    54        of any business is to increase the sales.  Therefore, you
    55        would take more bottom line profit.  So, they would not
    56        just assess the profit figure; they would assess the
    57        operations in the store and how well the store is running,
    58        because that is directly -- the amount of money you spend
    59        on labour directly affects your operations.
    60

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