Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 66
1 paper.
2
3 Q. Mr. Coton, you must believe that I accept a word of what
4 you have said about that or anybody on this side of the
5 court.
6 A. Basically, I do not care if you do not believe me.
7 I am telling the truth and that is what matter.
8
9 Q. I am coming back o that. "Crew turnover: You have latched
10 on to this too late. Recent efforts have seen dividends.
11 Overall you must stop paying lip service to this area.
12 PRs must be maintained 100 per cent up-to-date. All the
13 features on the crew retention audit must be acted upon.
14 You did act too slowly. Your crew retention turnover is
15 one of the worst in the region. Think what this costs in
16 pounds. Keep up recent efforts. Remember that posters,
17 crew incentives, activities are no substitute for good
18 people practices. I feel that you have become less
19 approachable in recent months and have let your personal
20 conflicts with Sally Spurgeon spill over into your
21 dealings with other crew and Managers."
22
23 Mr. Coton, that is a damning indictment, is it not, of
24 your qualities as a Store Manager of people?
25 A. I do not see it that way. It is a criticism of what
26 was happening at that particular time which I am not
27 disputing, but, as I said, in the seven years I worked for
28 the Company if I was such a bad Manager why was I not
29 sacked by them? Why was I continually told: "You are a
30 good Manager. You have done excellent results and got a
31 good PAC. The store is a B." Is that all the marks of a
32 bad Manager?
33
34 Q. Mr. Coton, the fact is that you had appalling turnover
35 figures all the time you were at Colchester; that you
36 could not retain decent staff; that you could not promote
37 or hire decent Managers, and the reason was that you were
38 not good at managing people. The result was, if I may put
39 it to you, that the only way in which the store could make
40 money was if you cut corners at the cost end of the
41 business. That is right, is it not?
42 A. Absolutely wrong.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is pretty well what Mr. Davies was
45 being told by Mr. Holloway in September 1985, which is why
46 I was very interested in what the turnover figures were
47 then as well.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I do not have them. We have them in
50 these papers for when he was a Supervisor, but not for
51 when he was a Manager.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There you are. If they are not there ----
54
55 THE WITNESS: If I may make a point on this?
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: --- I cannot have them.
58
59 THE WITNESS: If I may make a point on that. You are attacking
60 the way I deal with people there, but if you read through
