Day 137 - 19 Jun 95 - Page 50


     
     1        has to think about?
     2        A.  Absolutely.
     3
     4   Q.   The cost of labour?
     5        A.  Sure.
     6
     7   Q.   I take it you would agree, nobody in this court would
     8        disagree, that if your labour costs are unduly high your
     9        profitability may fall?
    10        A.  That is correct.
    11
    12   Q.   First of all about this document, we or at least I in this
    13        court had supposed this was a United States document for
    14        the reason that it calls itself McCopCo, is it or not?
    15        A.  No.  These crew labour percentages are lower than what
    16        I would anticipate.
    17
    18   Q.   Do you see the first line table the way the word "labour"
    19        is spelt?
    20        A.  Yes.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can I make sure I have the right document?
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  It is called "Payroll per cent XLS" whatever that
    25        might mean.  It looks like that my Lord.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is 41A, is it?
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, my Lord.  It should be 41A.
    30
    31   THE WITNESS:  I have at the bottom 704A.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That should come before 41B and C.
    34
    35   MR. RAMPTON:  Do you think it likely that the Americans would
    36        have as a courtesy to the British and their court
    37        proceedings misspelt the word "labour"?
    38        A.  No.  With all due to the regard to the respect we do
    39        have, we would not do that.  The spelling O-U-R is not used
    40        in the US.
    41
    42   Q.   Not I dare say for some years, though there might have been
    43        a time.  Mr. Stein, what do you think the US across the
    44        country on average the labour costs are as a percentage of
    45        sales?
    46        A.  It would be in the 17.5, 18 per cent range in the US.
    47
    48   Q.   So it is significantly higher than it is in this country?
    49        A.  Yes, you need to ----
    50 
    51   Q.   What do you think the reason for that is? 
    52        A.  It is clear to me why.  This is a percentage of sales 
    53        and I believe that the stores in England have higher
    54        volume, if you will.  I do not know if the word
    55        "volume" ----
    56
    57   Q.   Yes.
    58        A.  --- is correct for you.  But higher sales than the US
    59        stores, so that has a direct bearing on what labour per
    60        cent would be.  Obviously, the higher the volume of the

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