Day 204 - 15 Jan 96 - Page 29


     
     1        would have known if you do that it just rebounds again the
     2        next month.   It gets worse and worse, so you do not really
     3        achieve anything by doing that at all; you just make the
     4        situation worse for yourself.
     5
     6   Q.   It is basically a desperate measure taken by somebody who
     7        is not thinking straight who is trying to avoid getting
     8        into trouble over food costs?
     9        A.  That is an extreme way of putting it, but yes.
    10
    11   Q.   Just moving on to paragraph 5 in your statement, you said
    12        that Mr. Coton had insufficient numbers of crew and
    13        Managers and those he had were not good enough.  That was
    14        true when you were the Store Manager too, was it not, that
    15        you had insufficient numbers of crew?
    16        A.  No, it was not, no.
    17
    18   MS. STEEL: I do not know where these are, actually, the
    19        performance reviews for Mark Davis.  I am not sure.
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  They are a bit further on in that bundle,
    22        Mr. Davis.  If you look to the end of that divider, you
    23        will see a stamp at the bottom of page 35.  The pages
    24        leading up to that include performance reviews.
    25        A.  Yes.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:   If we just look, for example, at the very first --
    28        it is on page 33.
    29        A.  Yes.
    30
    31   Q.   27th September 1988, and under section 2, "crew and
    32        management development", the third -- well, I will just
    33        start reading.  Is it 1985?  Sorry.  "In the 14 months
    34        Colchester has been open, we have not produced a single
    35        home grown Floor Manager.  This is deplorable.  It now
    36        seems that you are also under-crewed."  So you did have
    37        problems with not having enough crew in your store?
    38        A.  At that time?
    39
    40   Q.   When you were the Store Manager?
    41        A.  At that point, I may have done, yes.
    42
    43   Q.   It was a recurring problem, was it not, because of -----
    44        A.  I would not say it was a recurring problem at all, no.
    45        At that point, I was fairly new to the store at that point,
    46        having taken over from Martin Holloway, and there may have
    47        been a brief period where we were short of crew.  But, as I
    48        remember it, we were generally well staffed and well crewed
    49        up.
    50 
    51        I do not know how long after I got promoted this 
    52        performance review was done, but I believe it was fairly 
    53        soon afterwards.
    54
    55   Q.   So you are saying that this was the only example, the only
    56        time when you were under-crewed at the Colchester store
    57        when you were the Manager, was for the first -----
    58        A.  I am saying in general the store was well staffed up
    59        and well crewed when I was the Manager, yes.
    60

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