Day 085 - 08 Feb 95 - Page 32
1 ring alarm bells and you would say: "Why did that happen?
2 What was the problem with that?"
3
4 Q. So if someone was regularly dropping trays of buns and they
5 were showing up in the waste bin figures, Head Office would
6 not say anything about that?
7 A. Trays of buns are very inexpensive and not a high waste
8 item.
9
10 Q. If people were dropping trays of patties on the floor or
11 whatever?
12 A. They would have to drop a lot, a great deal, for it to
13 cause any alarm at Head Office.
14
15 Q. What about on a regional basis then?
16 A. Even on a regional basis, it is fair to -- we do
17 monitor the waste figures. As an Operations Manager, one
18 of the indicators of how the restaurant is doing is waste
19 figures that you get in. If one of the figures is out of
20 line, then you would ask, you know, the questions "why" and
21 you would normally find that it is an extraordinary
22 incident. In the normal process of operating the
23 restaurant, we expect to waste buns, meat, lettuce as
24 accidents happen; it is the way that we do business. It is
25 a fact of doing business the way we do it.
26
27 Q. What percentage do you expect to waste?
28 A. It would be somewhere in the region one-and-a-half to
29 two, two-and-a-half per cent of sales.
30
31 Q. So if it went above that, would you start being concerned?
32 A. Yes, it would raise a question in your mind if there is
33 a problem there.
34
35 Q. You would take it up with the store involved?
36 A. Yes, you would. It also depends on the volume of the
37 restaurant. The percentage figures are much lower for high
38 volume restaurants. As you look at any figures, you look
39 at the waste figures to see if it was being managed
40 correctly.
41
42 Q. Do you analyse the different categories of waste, the
43 reasons why -----
44 A. In restaurants they do, yes. They have it broken down,
45 so it is 10 hamburger buns, a bag of lettuce, a case of
46 meat. They have that broken down but the figure that they
47 report through would just be the overall figure.
48
49 Q. Do you analyse it in terms of what has been dropped or what
50 has come in mouldy or what has been in the storage, the
51 warm store too long or whatever?
52 A. Within a restaurant you would put -- an extraordinary
53 figure would have an explanation.
54
55 Q. But, generally, you do not break it down into those types
56 of categories?
57 A. Sorry, two questions at once -- I missed them.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You both asked a question at the same time.
60 If you are within, say, you are up to two-and-a-half per
