Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 47


     
     1        I just want to tell you now, while it is on my mind, that
     2        that is a matter I would be interested in knowing the
     3        answer to.
     4
     5        Quite apart from what may be the more absolute question of
     6        whether, if it is defamatory to say the Company pay low
     7        wages, McDonald's does pay low wages, and therefore they
     8        cannot beef about someone saying that.  But I think I have
     9        to get a grip of the broad picture here as well as the more
    10        specific one, especially if there is any question of fair
    11        comment.  There may not be in this leaflet at all any
    12        question of fair comment at the end of the day.  It may be
    13        a question of justification or not.  But in so far as it is
    14        fair comment, I think this will probably all come into the
    15        equation.  Leave it there.  I have not reached any decision
    16        on it.  I will need your help.  Mr. Rampton can give me any
    17        help he thinks he can as well.
    18
    19   MS. STEEL:   I do not know where this comes.  I think it is in
    20        the section called "McDonald's suppliers and purchasing"?
    21        A.  Yes.
    22
    23   Q.   On the final page, or the final page I have of that, it
    24        says that in 1993 McDonald's customers in the UK consumed
    25        40,000 tons of McFries.  It says £42M-worth of beef,
    26        £25M-worth of chicken products and 40,000 tons of McFries.
    27        Does the Company have statistics on what exactly that
    28        represents in terms of how many portions of those things
    29        were sold?
    30        A.  No, I do not know that we have anything in total that
    31        says it.  It probably worked it out.  I do not know the
    32        exact way.  But probably comes close.
    33
    34   Q.   Have you any idea of what kind of ----
    35        A.  I am trying to think for a second.  There is a yield,
    36        number of portions of regular French fries per hundred
    37        weight of potatoes to a hundred kilos of fries that we
    38        purchase.  We could work out from that.  I cannot remember
    39        what the yield was.  We could come pretty close to the
    40        number of portions.
    41
    42   Q.   Right.  What about in terms of the beef?
    43        A.  £41M-worth of beef.  From a monetary figure like that
    44        I cannot tell you much.  I do not know what the price per
    45        pound was during the year, how it went up or down or
    46        regular burgers versus large or quarter-pounders.  I cannot
    47        tell much from that one.
    48
    49   Q.   You do not know off the top of your head how many patties
    50        are sold each year? 
    51        A.  Well, I know there are ten patties for every pound of 
    52        beef of the regular size, and there are 4 quarter-pounders 
    53        for every one of those, but beyond that I cannot tell you
    54        much, not from here anyhow.
    55
    56   Q.   It is just because the Company does quote things like one
    57        billion hamburgers sold and things like that.  I do not
    58        know whether you have any comparable figures for the UK,
    59        about how many hamburgers get sold each year?
    60        A.  No, I do not know that we ever totalled it, I think the

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