Day 072 - 12 Jan 95 - Page 56
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I must say I feel rather differently about
2 this than someone as an individual being asked what his
3 personal income is, which could be interpreted as personal
4 pride.
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: I understand that, though it may well be, I know
7 not, that Mr. Stump's personal position is related directly
8 to the amount of turnover.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If we come to that we can deal with it.
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: I want to make it clear that my reason for
13 intervening is not simply that Mr. Stump who is obviously
14 somewhat reluctant to answer, but that your Lordship will
15 remember, for example, some questions were asked the other
16 day about Mrs. Thatcher, as she then was, and Mr. Love and
17 Sir Bernard Ingham, matters of that kind. It has since
18 become apparent that the only reason those questions were
19 was asked so that the Defendants could disseminate damaging
20 publicity about McDonald's. It is for those reasons that
21 I am as suspicious as I am.
22
23 MR. MORRIS: Mr. Rampton keeps making unsubstantiated comments
24 like that. If he has any proof that that was the reason
25 those questions were asked, then he should bring it before
26 the court. If he can prove that was the reason I asked
27 those questions, then that is up to him. Otherwise he
28 should not make such ridiculous unsubstantiated comments.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am going to allow you to ask a question
31 about turnover, because we have some figures of general
32 McDonald's turnover. At the moment I do not see why anyone
33 should be particularly self-conscious about what the
34 turnover of a particular restaurant is either. Keep the
35 financial figures directly on the point that are you aiming
36 at.
37
38 (The witness returned into court).
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I want you to answer the question in so far
41 as you can as to the turnover of the Kings Road Royal
42 Avenue restaurant. If there are any further questions
43 about figures and if Mr. Rampton takes any objection to
44 them, I will decide upon them as they come, but I would
45 like you to answer that question if you have the
46 information. It is not expected to be spot-on, unless you
47 do have a spot-on figure.
48 A. Yes, sir. The approximate sales for last year were
49 £1.6 million, that was net sales.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you mean by "net sales"?
52 A. Well, after the VAT and ----
53
54 MR. MORRIS: Do you have company pressure or guidelines on the
55 labour costs of crew staffing that you should not go above?
56 A. There is no figure that we should not go above.
57
58 Q. No, but I mean what is the guideline for your store?
59 A. It would be whatever labour percentage we need to meet
60 the company guidelines on operational standards.
