Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 27
1 Q. That is before tax. After tax, I think it is £20,046,000
2 profit?
3 A. That is quite a difference.
4
5 Q. It is still a substantial profit; is it not?
6 A. Well, I am glad I have it, if that is what you mean.
7 Is it a justified return on the investment made by the
8 shareholders? I have to tell you it is not. People could
9 earn more just putting it in a bank having created no jobs,
10 no wealth, no nothing.
11
12 Q. Your fries, you sell them in regular, medium and large
13 sizes?
14 A. Yes, 3 sizes.
15
16 Q. Why is not the regular size called small?
17 A. I did not pick the names. It is something inherited
18 from many, many years ago when there were, I think, 2
19 sizes, regular and large.
20
21 Q. No, there used to be regular and medium.
22 A. Well, Ms. Steel, let me correct you. In the early days
23 of McDonald's there were only 2 sizes. There was a regular
24 and a large size. Subsequently other sizes have come along
25 necessitating the large introduction.
26
27 Q. The fact is, Mr. Preston, that you call them "regular" to
28 make people think that they are getting more than if they
29 were called" small in the same way that you call your wages
30 "competitive" rather than calling them "low"?
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would be surprised if anyone selling
33 anything called it "small" if they could think of some
34 other adjective because that makes people think they are
35 getting less than they ought to.
36
37 MS. STEEL: Exactly.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We have to live in the real world.
40
41 MS. STEEL: That is the reality, is it not, Mr. Preston, that
42 most people would call your wages low but you prefer to
43 call them "competitive".
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I correct that. Ice cream vans sometimes
46 have small, medium and large but they are probably not as
47 clued up on marketing as McDonald's are.
48
49 MS. STEEL: That is the reality, is it not, Mr. Preston, that
50 most people would call your wages "low" but you prefer to
51 call them "competitive" or "fair"?
52 A. No, I would disagree with that.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you have left that point.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: Going back to the Jill Barnes Health and Safety
57 Update, November 1993. Mr. Riley has kindly copied a
58 couple of the relevant pages but he could not copy all of
59 them.
60
