Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 08


     
     1        restaurants at their leisure, submitting reports as to
              what they see.  These are compiled, analysed and
     2        discussions will take place with the licensees or, in
              fact, our own company stores, if appropriate, about what
     3        was, in fact, found; what may or may not be needed to be
              corrected or what may or may not be superb and they need a
     4        great pat on the back for doing a good job.
 
     5   Q.   If a franchisee should be found to be wholly
              unsatisfactory in some important area of his operation,
     6        whether it might be employment or service to customers or
              the quality of his food, what might happen to him?
     7        A.  Firstly, he would be warned and counselled.  We would
              try and put together with him assets of the company, be
     8        they people or systems, to improve the circumstance and
              put him back on track.  If we were unsuccessful in that,
     9        well, it is not unknown to disenfranchise someone who
              failed to come up to the standard.
    10
         Q.   Mr. Preston, you told us that the present size of
    11        McDonald's in the United Kingdom in numbers of restaurants
              is 521 or thereabouts?
    12        A.  Yes.
 
    13   Q.   Do you have in your head a rough figure for the number of
              transactions at the till per restaurant in the United
    14        Kingdom annually?
              A.  In the UK restaurants average about 470,000 purchases
    15        per restaurant per year.
 
    16   Q.   That is a purchase at the till?
              A.  Yes.
    17
         Q.   Is it known what is the average number of meals per till
    18        transaction?
              A.  It averages just under or just over two depending on
    19        the time of year and the restaurant.  I think two is
              probably a very safe and accurate number, so those 470,000
    20        transactions relate to something approaching 900,000 or
              more people fed.
    21
         Q.   That makes, if you multiply 470,000 by 2, you get I think
    22        940,000 meals per restaurant per annum as a rough
              estimate?
    23        A.  Rough estimate.
 
    24   Q.   There are 521 restaurants in the United Kingdom.  My Lord,
              perhaps I might be allowed to lead on the arithmetic?
    25        Does that mean there are consumed annually in this country
              a total of, I think it is, something like 490 million 
    26        meals per year? 
              A.  Approaching 500 million; that is correct. 
    27
         Q.   489,740.  Mr. Preston, what, so far as you can tell, is
    28        the average number of employees per restaurant in the
              United Kingdom?
    29        A.  In the UK we average about 60.
 
    30   Q.   Does that then mean that the approximate number of people
              you employ in this country is over 31,000?

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