Day 204 - 15 Jan 96 - Page 45
1 Company wants to see?
2 A. No, that is not correct. The system we use at present,
3 it relies on a far more all-round system whereby a lot of
4 different factors are taken into account, ranging from
5 customer complaint letters to mystery diner visits where
6 people go in the restaurants unannounced and do checks like
7 that. The full field visits are unannounced, so that
8 people do not know about them; and a lot of the full fields
9 in those days were unannounced as well, so you did not know
10 about them. Occasionally, you did find out, in which case,
11 yes, you might have put one or two extra people on, but
12 certainly not to the extent that you are insinuating.
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest you do, if you want to, is you
15 put your point on this. I take the point you have put,
16 that, in order to reach the standards Managers were asking
17 for, there were blitzes which would involve paying people
18 money to stay up all night to get it right, and that might
19 put pressure on the cost margins. But if there is another
20 point apart from that one, then put it, so I follow what
21 you are getting at.
22
23 MS. STEEL: No, that is it, really.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: The reality is that the blitzes that are done
26 involving taking on extra staff or having people working
27 all night to impress a high up visitor the next day, or
28 whatever, to achieve grades, would be the kind of level of
29 staffing that McDonald's stores should be staffed at all
30 the time in order to run the store properly?
31 A. That is rubbish.
32
33 Q. While we are on your performance reviews, if you go to
34 page 29, please? You had a problem, did you not, with high
35 food costs at Colchester store? Just before you look at
36 the sheet, did you have a problem about controlling your
37 food costs?
38 A. Not generally. I may have had a problem at one time or
39 another, yes.
40
41 Q. On 27th January 1986, second paragraph under
42 "Financial": "I expect you to take the advice on training
43 I have given you. This must take the form of far greater
44 attention to scheduling, petty cash expenditure, reacting
45 to high food costs and outside services." Then the next
46 paragraph: "I think you showed a concern with regard to
47 poor financial results.......(read to the words).......
48 charges and higher monthly cash and minus have been
49 accepted. The time has now come when these must become
50 errors of the past." The same theme -----
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the point you are putting now,
53 Mr. Morris?
54
55 MR. MORRIS: The point is, in the bottom paragraph is the
56 point: "The word 'controllable' means just that, i.e. to
57 control, and to that end I would like you to hold regular
58 classes in your Managers meetings to explain how it is
59 done."
60
