Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 26


     
     1        like, for Leisure World, store 399.
     2
     3   Q.   Were most of the salaried management that were working in
     4        the other stores, the Tolgate, and who opened up the actual
     5        Leisure World store from the Colchester area, most of them,
     6        not all of them?
     7        A.  I mean, I cannot remember the exact management team of
     8        the Leisure World, you know.  I think, you know, just sort
     9        of, generally speaking, I would have looked for who
    10        I considered to be the most suitable applicants and it
    11        would have been in the Ipswich, Colchester, Clacton area.
    12        I do not know, I think John Atherton, who was my senior
    13        Supervisor, would have been involved and he might have
    14        recommended one or two other people as well, and if there
    15        was somebody available to come down from Peterborough who
    16        was a trainee Manager who was keen, who wanted to help with
    17        the opening, then they would have included too.  I cannot
    18        remember the exact names though.
    19
    20   Q.   But there would have been a premium around this period on
    21        experienced management available for running stores in the
    22        Colchester area?
    23        A.  Well, I did not have a problem with identifying who was
    24        going to run the store, because I had identified the person
    25        and we had -- I do not remember if there was a struggle or
    26        if there was -- yes, sure, I mean, new stores opening, we
    27        need the people available, but I am not sure if there was a
    28        problem with it at all.  I do not think there was.
    29
    30   Q.   Moving on in your statement, how many of your visits to the
    31        store were announced visits and how many were unannounced,
    32        percentage wise?  Half of them announced and half of them
    33        unannounced or what?
    34        A.  I do not remember.  I mean, I thought about this.
    35        I did a lot of announced and a lot of unannounced visits to
    36        the restaurant.
    37
    38   Q.   Would it be around half and half-ish?
    39        A.  I guess, I guess.
    40
    41   Q.   So, you were visiting approximately three times a week, yet
    42        very few of your unannounced visits coincided with Ray
    43        Coton's presence in the restaurants which you found
    44        frustrating.  You deliberately went down there when you
    45        knew he would not be there, did you not?
    46        A.  No, I went down there when I thought he would be there,
    47        in fact, because the sorts of times I would turn up would
    48        be a Saturday morning when I would expect the Store Manager
    49        to be there, because it is the busiest day of the week, and
    50        maybe Ray was not in until 10 o'clock, but I would have 
    51        expected the Store Manager in this particular store to be 
    52        there at a more appropriate time on a Saturday, making sure 
    53        it was going to run well, and that is what happened, you
    54        know, or I would -- they were the occasions that I remember
    55         -- or I would turn up on a Monday morning when the
    56        restaurant should be completing the weekly work, when again
    57        I would expect a restaurant Manager who was not in full
    58        control of his accounts and who needed to have his finger
    59        on the pulse and really know what was going on and have a
    60        full understanding of how the information was being

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