Day 151 - 10 Jul 95 - Page 61
1 probably nervous especially the higher the person is up the
2 structure coming into the restaurant and you want to try
3 and put people at their ease and not paint it in a negative
4 picture.
5
6 Q. You have said you have also got responsibility for 30
7 franchise stores?
8 A. Right.
9
10 Q. What are your responsibilities with regards to them? Are
11 they the same?
12 A. They are probably -- I would like my responsibilities
13 in the Company stores to be the same as the operators.
14 Because they are an individually owned business we have a
15 more hands off, there is not a formal relationship, so
16 whereas my Operations people have got the opportunity to
17 say to a manager: "Look, I want you to do X Y Z", with an
18 operator you have to persuade them through logic and
19 cognisant argument that what you are suggesting makes good
20 sense, or I might say, "I have been to a restaurant in
21 Glasgow where the operator there does something like this.
22 You may want to have a look at it".
23
24 In terms of being the person to, if you like, protect
25 quality service and cleanliness and those sort of operating
26 issues, then I would certainly, if they were contravening
27 those issues, have no lack of confidence about bringing it
28 to their attention, but my relationship is formal but it is
29 direct, obviously, as a company-owned restaurant would be.
30
31 Q. How do you ensure that policies are carried out in the
32 franchised stores?
33 A. I have a team of three field consultants and a field
34 service manager, a field service manager reports to me, so
35 in that respect I have a similar structure to the Company
36 restaurants. It is roughly one field consultant to about
37 10 or so operators and restaurants. The majority of my
38 operators only have one restaurant, so because of the fact
39 that there is a business person running the restaurant, the
40 field consultant has a slightly higher average of
41 restaurants under their "supervision", so to speak, in
42 inverted commas, than an area manager will have. Once
43 again, they follow a broadly similar pattern in their
44 requirements, accept once again they will not come in and
45 do an audit as such for their own requirements that we
46 might require within the Company. They will do it as part
47 of that business evolution hence my almost wish to have the
48 same relationship with the Company restaurants as I have
49 with the operators.
50
51 Q. I am not sure I understand that. So the Company does not
52 keep a check on what the franchisees are up to in terms of
53 whether they are breaking the law or things like that?
54 A. Sure. I mean in terms of checking up and such, I would
55 not care for the phrase, but in terms of the way you have
56 put it, that they are there to ensure that the franchisee
57 stays within the limits of the law, or stays within our own
58 operating standards, then, yes, they are the same.
59
60 Q. Right. That would include personnel practices?
