Day 196 - 06 Dec 95 - Page 23
1 come up with different ways of trying to save money,
2 increase the profit, and then they would be applied and you
3 would be sort of under the same pressure as any other costs
4 to actually achieve it.
5
6 Q. Do you remember what the target for the food costs was set
7 at?
8 A. Round about 29 or under I think is the figure that
9 stays in my mind.
10
11 Q. 29 what per cent?
12 A. 29 per cent or under, it is a figure that sits in my
13 mind, but again that would be a figure that would be
14 adjusted throughout the course of the year, not by a great
15 deal, but it might be 28.5 one month, 29.5 the next, but 29
16 is the figure that sort of sticks in my mind.
17
18 Q. You said you saw Mark Davis water down, Mark Davis as Store
19 Manager on page 4, water down shake mix -- well, does it
20 apply to the shake mix, colas and double brewing the
21 coffee?
22 A. What it was we were looking at ways of how we could
23 improve the food costs, and one of he many measures that we
24 came up with by doing things ----
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When you say "we" who do you mean?
27 A. That would have been the Store Managers, Supervisor.
28
29 Q. When was this?
30 A. I cannot remember exactly when it would have been, but
31 it would have been at a Managers' meetings either held in
32 the Colchester store or at one of the other stores where it
33 would have been discussed within, say, the three or four
34 Managers present and the Supervisor of ways that we could
35 improve the yields. If memory serves me correct on this,
36 actually I think it originated from the Supervisor at that
37 time which was Frank Stanton and actually came on down
38 through that route. That is the first time I actually
39 became aware of the fact we were going to take these
40 courses of actions.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Was Mark Davies at any of those meetings?
43 A. As the Store Manager at the time he would have been
44 presents at those meetings, and as an Assistant Manager in
45 the store at the time we did then start to water down shake
46 mix, water down colas, double brew coffee, cheese slices
47 were cut in half, smaller portions of lettuce were put on,
48 smaller shots of ketchup, anything that would actually
49 help. Where you are dealing with like thousands of
50 portions day, over the course of the day it builds up to
51 quite a sizeable saving. All those measures were put in
52 force and used.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There was actually nothing illegal in doing
55 that or even wrong in doing that, as I understand it. It
56 is not like watering down something which has on the label
57 that it has a certain percentage of certain ingredients in
58 where watering it down makes it less than that?
59 A. Yes. I did not personally see it as an illegal act.
60 I saw it as a way of improving the profitability of the
