Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 08
1 restaurants at their leisure, submitting reports as to
what they see. These are compiled, analysed and
2 discussions will take place with the licensees or, in
fact, our own company stores, if appropriate, about what
3 was, in fact, found; what may or may not be needed to be
corrected or what may or may not be superb and they need a
4 great pat on the back for doing a good job.
5 Q. If a franchisee should be found to be wholly
unsatisfactory in some important area of his operation,
6 whether it might be employment or service to customers or
the quality of his food, what might happen to him?
7 A. Firstly, he would be warned and counselled. We would
try and put together with him assets of the company, be
8 they people or systems, to improve the circumstance and
put him back on track. If we were unsuccessful in that,
9 well, it is not unknown to disenfranchise someone who
failed to come up to the standard.
10
Q. Mr. Preston, you told us that the present size of
11 McDonald's in the United Kingdom in numbers of restaurants
is 521 or thereabouts?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Do you have in your head a rough figure for the number of
transactions at the till per restaurant in the United
14 Kingdom annually?
A. In the UK restaurants average about 470,000 purchases
15 per restaurant per year.
16 Q. That is a purchase at the till?
A. Yes.
17
Q. Is it known what is the average number of meals per till
18 transaction?
A. It averages just under or just over two depending on
19 the time of year and the restaurant. I think two is
probably a very safe and accurate number, so those 470,000
20 transactions relate to something approaching 900,000 or
more people fed.
21
Q. That makes, if you multiply 470,000 by 2, you get I think
22 940,000 meals per restaurant per annum as a rough
estimate?
23 A. Rough estimate.
24 Q. There are 521 restaurants in the United Kingdom. My Lord,
perhaps I might be allowed to lead on the arithmetic?
25 Does that mean there are consumed annually in this country
a total of, I think it is, something like 490 million
26 meals per year?
A. Approaching 500 million; that is correct.
27
Q. 489,740. Mr. Preston, what, so far as you can tell, is
28 the average number of employees per restaurant in the
United Kingdom?
29 A. In the UK we average about 60.
30 Q. Does that then mean that the approximate number of people
you employ in this country is over 31,000?
