Day 204 - 15 Jan 96 - Page 47
1 MS. STEEL: If you turn to page 24 -- this is still on your
2 performance review.
3 A. Yes.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: This is October 1986, this one.
6
7 MS. STEEL: Which covers 1985 to 1986, September to September.
8 On page 24: "Food costs has erred on the extravagant side."
9 So, again, they are putting pressure on you to lower your
10 food costs?
11 A. Maybe in that particular instance it was running out on
12 the top end of the range, or out of the top end of the
13 range. So the pressure was not to reduce it as much as
14 possible; the pressure would be to reduce it in line with
15 that range, which maybe the fry yield was running over the
16 range so, you know, we were wasting a lot of fries; maybe
17 the waste was not being recorded sufficiently well.
18
19 Q. You were getting pressure over the fries, were you?
20 A. That was just an example.
21
22 Q. You recall that, though?
23 A. No, I do not, no.
24
25 Q. You do not?
26 A. That was just an example of what may have been -- I was
27 trying to give you a sort of broader knowledge, so you
28 could understand. It is not that you want to reduce your
29 food costs as low as possible. That is certainly not the
30 case.
31
32 Q. The Company did not want it to be within a range; they
33 wanted it to be less than the given percentage, did they
34 not?
35 A. No.
36
37 Q. If you look -----
38 A. Why would they publish things like fry yields which are
39 given a range within which the fry yields should be
40 attained, or drinks, beverage yield should be a yield
41 within which your beverage yield should be? They did not
42 want it to be as low as possible, certainly not.
43
44 Q. On page 25, under the "additional comments" section in the
45 middle of the page, it says: "Colchester profitability
46 could be increased by diligent cost controls and budgeting,
47 stead results with no fluctuations, food less than
48 30 per cent, paper less than 4 per cent, labour less than
49 13 and a half per cent", et cetera.
50 A. Yes.
51
52 Q. There is nothing about a variation there, is there? They
53 are saying they want you to get the costs lower than those
54 given percentages?
55 A. In that particular instance, yes, although the Company
56 guideline would still be a range.
57
58 Q. Like the thing about cleanliness being a consistent problem
59 throughout store, being able to keep it as the Company was
60 saying they wanted it, food control costs are a problem in
