Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 48
1 provide, you know, embellish the service we are giving our
2 regular customers and, hopefully, attract new business.
3
4 Q. When you say "trading area", you are talking about a period
5 of time?
6 A. No, by "trading area" I am referring to the area
7 surrounding the store. Each restaurant has a defined
8 trading area, which is debateable, but basically it is a
9 convenience, it is a convenience line that we establish as
10 maybe a few blocks of walking distance, and, in terms of
11 vehicular traffic, maybe it is a mile and a half. There
12 may be some natural barriers that might restrict that. For
13 instance, there might be a bridge or a body of water that
14 would limit the radius that we might have in a particular
15 direction. I would say, in general, most stores would have
16 a radius of somewhere between two and three miles. Some
17 stores would have a much smaller trading area if it were,
18 let us say, in a metropolitan area, like London, the area
19 would be even smaller than that.
20
21 So we try to reduce the degree of chance. Even with the
22 best laid plans we were sometimes surprised, as you are, in
23 most businesses, but we try to plan as well as we could to
24 anticipate the expected traffic, and also to try to build
25 traffic.
26
27 Q. What were the profit goals that you set?
28 A. Again, it would be predicated on top-line sales.
29 Depending upon what we had projected for the month, we
30 would like at the food cost, project out what the food cost
31 had been in previous months, we would break down that food
32 cost and look at the principal areas that would contribute
33 to the cost, and if we saw there was some waste,
34 inefficiency this had to be addressed, then we would set
35 some goals for that.
36
37 Q. What about for labour?
38 A. As well as other areas on the profit and loss
39 statement.
40
41 Q. What about for labour?
42 A. Well, I just went through what we would do on labour.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Put quite succinctly what your suggestion is
45 in relation to this. I know what it is, but put it to
46 Mr. Beavers.
47
48 MS. STEEL: I am not quite clear what Mr. Beavers is saying in
49 relation to -- the labour cost have to -----
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think Mr. Beavers went off on an answer,
52 which was an answer to your question, because it may not
53 have been clear to him what you were getting at. What you
54 are being asked, really, is whether a percentage would be
55 fixed upon, which was thought to be the desirable
56 percentage of turnover expendable on crew wages, and above
57 which the restaurant should not go and should try to avoid
58 going. Leave aside any ramifications of that, which may be
59 put to you, were it so, but was that the system when you
60 were an area supervisor?
