Day 204 - 15 Jan 96 - Page 49
1 Manager?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: (Pause) We are just checking the PRs.
5
6 MS. STEEL: If you just turn to the performance reviews of
7 Ray Coton -----
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Pale blue 2, on the very top, the one with
10 a 2 in a green flag, right at the back, divider 32; and if
11 you look about two-thirds way through the bundle or halfway
12 through, you will see page numbers stamped at the bottom.
13 A. Yes.
14
15 MS. STEEL: If you could turn to page 40, which is a
16 performance recrew carried out by you on Ray Coton, it says
17 "due on 1st November 1988"?
18 A. Yes.
19
20 Q. In the "profit" section on page 40, it says: "Since the
21 interim performance review, efforts have been made in this
22 area. Food cost has levelled out dramatically. This has
23 been your bug bear at the beginning of the year. The
24 general profit and loss results are quite good. Areas of
25 concern remain: food at 29.66 for the year so far." That
26 is percentage, is it not?
27 A. Yes.
28
29 Q. And you have set a target of 30 per cent, have you not?
30 A. I cannot remember.
31
32 Q. Would it have been less than that?
33 A. I honestly cannot remember. Percentages fluctuate
34 according to the raw product prices.
35
36 MR. MORRIS: Would your concern have been that he was not
37 reaching the target that had been set; is that what that
38 basically says in that paragraph?
39 A. I would say it says that the food cost is higher than
40 would be expected, given the product mix and the --
41 however, stores were performing, perhaps.
42
43 Q. But, in fact, compared with the ones we looked at earlier
44 on which said the food cost were 30 per cent for you, for
45 maximum profitability, you were setting targets then higher
46 than you yourself were being set when you were Manager?
47 A. Yes. The reason for that could have been, for
48 instance, say the price of beef goes down, then obviously
49 the average Company food cost percentage could be a lot
50 lower one year than it could be another. So, for instance,
51 say you had very low beef costs, very low lettuce costs and
52 the raw items coming into the restaurant were lower,
53 through both seasonal and annual changes, then obviously
54 what could be a good food cost one year could be a pretty
55 poor one the next year. So, for instance, I think this
56 argument with the Company, the average Company food costs
57 is fluctuated between 27 and almost up to 32 per cent on
58 occasions, dependent on the cost of the raw items coming
59 into the restaurant. So what might be an easy target one
60 year of, say, 30 per cent might be a difficult one the next
