Day 125 - 12 May 95 - Page 43
1 those days, as it is the case today, our philosophy was one
2 of not having a contract with the suppliers with our
3 suppliers. Even today, even the major suppliers that do
4 billions of dollars worth of business we do not actually
5 have a written contract. Ray Kroc in the early days when
6 he entered into -----
7
8 Q. -- give evidence?
9 A. It is still the case, you know, today.
10
11 Q. So a lot of it was based upon trust, really?
12 A. Right, exactly. That was the reason I was trying to
13 make the point that when we shook hand with the supplier
14 face to face and said: "These are our specifications. This
15 is what we want". We expected that person to understand
16 that they were giving us, he was giving us his word.
17
18 Q. You did not want to keep butting in and telling him what to
19 do, if he was not doing it?
20 A. Absolutely.
21
22 Q. So, as far as the hamburger products were concerned, the
23 Field Service Consultant would go to the patty supplier
24 once in a while in that month or two month period, that
25 they tried to cover everything?
26 A. Yes.
27
28 Q. And that would be about it, really, in terms of what they
29 could actually do physically, apart from discontinuing a
30 supplier they did not like. Is that fair enough?
31 A. That would be fair enough, if that many times.
32
33 MS. STEEL: In the 1992 annual report, which I am just going to
34 read something out, and you can get it out if you want to,
35 but it does not really matter. It is pink volume III.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you had better.
38
39 MS. STEEL: Pink volume III, tab 4, page 114. You do not need
40 it find it, page 114. Jim Cantelupo, in the middle column,
41 he is quoted as saying "In the international arena we do
42 not usually like to talk about market share because we are
43 not going to share anything. We are after the entire
44 market and it is really true in many of the markets". Is
45 that a company view, that you are not interested in sharing
46 anything? You are after the whole market?
47 A. My recollection of that comment, and I have to confess
48 at the time it was an attempt at humour.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is fighting talk, is it not?
51 A. Yes.
52
53 MS. STEEL: But is that a company, that is a company -----
54 A. We would like to garner as much market share that we
55 can.
56
57 Q. Including everything if you can get it?
58 A. In the final analysis the customers really determine
59 how much market share you are going to have by the delivery
60 of the services and goods that you provide. So if we do
