Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 48


     
     1        provide, you know, embellish the service we are giving our
     2        regular customers and, hopefully, attract new business.
     3
     4   Q.   When you say "trading area", you are talking about a period
     5        of time?
     6        A.  No, by "trading area" I am referring to the area
     7        surrounding the store.  Each restaurant has a defined
     8        trading area, which is debateable, but basically it is a
     9        convenience, it is a convenience line that we establish as
    10        maybe a few blocks of walking distance, and, in terms of
    11        vehicular traffic, maybe it is a mile and a half.  There
    12        may be some natural barriers that might restrict that.  For
    13        instance, there might be a bridge or a body of water that
    14        would limit the radius that we might have in a particular
    15        direction.  I would say, in general, most stores would have
    16        a radius of somewhere between two and three miles.  Some
    17        stores would have a much smaller trading area if it were,
    18        let us say, in a metropolitan area, like London, the area
    19        would be even smaller than that.
    20
    21        So we try to reduce the degree of chance.  Even with the
    22        best laid plans we were sometimes surprised, as you are, in
    23        most businesses, but we try to plan as well as we could to
    24        anticipate the expected traffic, and also to try to build
    25        traffic.
    26
    27   Q.   What were the profit goals that you set?
    28        A.  Again, it would be predicated on top-line sales.
    29        Depending upon what we had projected for the month, we
    30        would like at the food cost, project out what the food cost
    31        had been in previous months, we would break down that food
    32        cost and look at the principal areas that would contribute
    33        to the cost, and if we saw there was some waste,
    34        inefficiency this had to be addressed, then we would set
    35        some goals for that.
    36
    37   Q.   What about for labour?
    38        A.  As well as other areas on the profit and loss
    39        statement.
    40
    41   Q.   What about for labour?
    42        A.  Well, I just went through what we would do on labour.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Put quite succinctly what your suggestion is
    45        in relation to this.  I know what it is, but put it to
    46        Mr. Beavers.
    47
    48   MS. STEEL:   I am not quite clear what Mr. Beavers is saying in
    49        relation to -- the labour cost have to -----
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think Mr. Beavers went off on an answer, 
    52        which was an answer to your question, because it may not 
    53        have been clear to him what you were getting at.  What you
    54        are being asked, really, is whether a percentage would be
    55        fixed upon, which was thought to be the desirable
    56        percentage of turnover expendable on crew wages, and above
    57        which the restaurant should not go and should try to avoid
    58        going.  Leave aside any ramifications of that, which may be
    59        put to you, were it so, but was that the system when you
    60        were an area supervisor?

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