Day 042 - 31 Oct 94 - Page 18
1 decision.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: Presumably, you would want to make that message
4 known to consumers, potential customers?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. That you are, in fact, an alternative to, say, pub food or
8 supermarket food, take-away sandwiches in a supermarket,
9 for example?
10 A. We do not -- I am not aware of anything that we have
11 done that kind of set ourselves up in quite that way, as an
12 alternative to that. You are correct in saying that we do
13 wish to tell people what benefits we can offer; for
14 instance, speed of service, convenience.
15
16 MS. STEEL: So if Mr. Preston was quoted as saying that
17 McDonald's had devised a product to be in competition with
18 supermarket products, would that be wrong? Would he be
19 wrong?
20 A. It would depend on what the product is you are talking
21 about and how it is intended to be used. You can buy-----
22
23 Q. Do you intend to-----
24 A. You can buy hamburgers at the supermarket.
25
26 Q. No. Do you intend to compete with supermarkets, or not?
27 A. What we intend -- when you say "do we intend to compete
28 with supermarkets", we are not in the supermarket
29 business. We are simply supplying a particular food need
30 to people, whether that be eating in our restaurants or to
31 take away from our restaurants. Now, if supermarkets --
32 and some have -- choose to sell sandwiches, for instance,
33 for people to go in at lunch quickly to buy them and take
34 away, then supermarkets in that sense are in competition
35 with us. It is very much competing for how people use us,
36 in the marketplace, not for the sale of a particular
37 product.
38
39 Q. So you agree now that you are in competition with
40 supermarkets and pubs?
41 A. No. What we -- our key -- actually, if you like, we
42 are trying to be in competition with any quick meal
43 occasion. So if a public house, for instance, was to set
44 up to one side a fast section, whereby they offered
45 hamburgers etcetera, then they would become a key part of
46 our competition, because they sell hamburgers quickly; as
47 would supermarkets; as would, in fact, garages who sell
48 hamburgers that you can heat up and eat quickly.
49
50 They then bring themselves, that little sector of
51 themselves, into the quick service restaurant market, and
52 that is where our key market lies: quick service
53 restaurants. That is where we are -- the minute someone
54 says: "I want something quickly. I will go to a garage,
55 because I can get a hamburger there very quickly", they
56 become our competition, and it is that that sector we are
57 competing for.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not have to be a hamburger, does it?
60 If they are thinking about getting something to see them
