Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 63


     
       1      turnover which help me while Mr. Davies was Manager or any
       2      figures, I can be referred to them.
       3
       4      We will take the five minutes.
       5
       6
       7                          (Short Adjournment)
       8
       9 MR. RAMPTON:  Mr. Coton, we were on page 49.  I would like you
      10      to look at the paragraph immediately above the section
      11      "Managers' Development", Mr. Davis writes: "You must look
      12      at this area seriously", that is PRs, "because it is the
      13      key to your future success.  Problems with QSC are often
      14      directly related to the quality of your people, Managers
      15      and crew, which in turn can be traced back to turnover and
      16      retention," that is to say, you need a lower turnover but
      17      more experienced people.  That is what it means, is it
      18      not?
      19      A.  That is the case, yes.
      20
      21 Q.   That means it costs more?
      22      A.  It does.
      23
      24 Q.   It does not look, does it, from what we have seen so far,
      25      Mr. Coton, that this Supervisor, Mr. Davis, was a
      26      fanatical cost-cutter, does it?
      27      A.  I think far from it.  It is evident from all evidence
      28      that I have read and seen that -- I think in one statement
      29      it says you lead the region, possibly the country in this
      30      area.  We were known for performing high figures.  We were
      31      known for producing good PACs.  We were held up as an
      32      example to the rest of the country on how to operate
      33      profitable stores.  It is right the way through.  That was
      34      the case.  Profit was the motivation behind what we did.
      35
      36 Q.   Forgive me, but what he is telling you here is that the
      37      way to profit is through increased sales, and the way to
      38      increased sales is an efficient, well-run restaurant that
      39      gives a good service to the customer?
      40      A.  I agree, but we get the contradiction in terms, is it
      41      not, where for us to do the job as we should be doing it
      42      it would actually cost the Company more.  If we go back to
      43      the question of high labour figures, why is it that when
      44      we had a visit or we did a full field labour costs were so
      45      high, food costs were so high?  If that was the figure
      46      that we should be running at all the time, that should be
      47      standard, not 2 or 3 per cent below that all the time.  It
      48      must have been obvious to everybody above us that if they
      49      are coming down and visiting us and we are running at 17,
      50      18 per cent and then the next two or three days we are
      51      running at 12, 13 per cent, there is a big difference.
      52 
      53 Q.   You got a ticking off for that, did you not?
      54      A.  I have never been ticked off officially or been told
      55      off for running labour too tight.
      56
      57 Q.   I thought we saw one a little bit earlier, did we not?
      58      A.  Where was that?
      59
      60 Q.   We can go back.

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