Day 072 - 12 Jan 95 - Page 59


     
     1   MR. MORRIS:  Have you in the time you have been at that store
     2        ever not achieved the profit and loss guideline or whatever
     3        it is, the budget, whatever, that the company wanted?
     4        A.  Well, the company has a budget and the company is
     5        making an estimation on the restaurant's profit for the
     6        year and their sales, and also on the company's profit and
     7        their sales, so I am not directly compared to the budget.
     8        I am assessed on the operations of my store and the
     9        profitability of my store.  I am not told not to go over
    10        the budget or not to go below the budget.  It is there
    11        simply as a guideline.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are we on environment/index.html">litter or are have we moved over to
    14        employment now?
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  Basically I have finished.  That does relate to
    17        environment/index.html">litter and employment generally, yes.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you have got a point to put in relation to
    20        this, why not just put it in one sentence if it relates to
    21        environment/index.html">litter.  If you are saying they were scrimping in some way,
    22        why not just put that and see what Mr. Stump says about
    23        that.
    24
    25   MR. MORRIS:  If you felt you were not achieving your budgetary
    26        targets, yes, and if the supervisors above you and the
    27        supervisors above them felt that budgetary targets were not
    28        being achieved, what are the easiest ways of improving your
    29        profit and loss performance in the store?
    30        A.  By becoming more efficient and looking at wastage in
    31        areas we have not been efficient in.
    32
    33   Q.   What areas would be a prime target for a simple, quick
    34        boost to achieve the targets?
    35        A.  Well, there is no simple quick boost because then the
    36        business would suffer.  If we did not spend the money that
    37        we needed to maintain operations then the restaurant would
    38        not be as profitable; we would not get as many sales.
    39
    40   Q.   Could we say -- I will put it to you.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me put it and then you see if you can
    43        improve on it.  You may or may not be able to increase your
    44        turnover.  One obvious way you can either cut or contain
    45        your costs is keeping your workforce to a minimum.
    46
    47   MR. MORRIS:  Would that be a reasonable presumption?
    48        A.  No, because if you cut back on your labour account then
    49        you are not able to run your restaurant efficiently, then
    50        if the customer is unhappy with the service you are 
    51        offering they would not come back and we would lose sales. 
    52        So we do not cut back on any accounts.  We look at ways of 
    53        making those accounts more efficient by cutting wastage.
    54        If we are using two people to do the job that one person
    55        could reasonably be expected to complete, then the obvious
    56        move would be to use one person to complete that job
    57        instead of two if two people were not needed.
    58
    59   Q.   But if you cancelled all environment/index.html">litter patrols, for example, then
    60        you would make a saving in purely monetary terms on the

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