Day 155 - 14 Jul 95 - Page 55
1 I recall Friday nights were quite busy, Saturday
2 lunch-times were quite busy, and for the sort of volume of
3 Friday nights, you know, you needed, you had 15 staff
4 working, I upped those up to 25. Saturdays was about 25.
5 I upped those up to 40.
6
7 Q. Tell me if I am wrong, but you say that after about a year
8 or so sales began to increase something like six to 10 per
9 cent a year, so it was not as if sales doubled or anything
10 immediately you got up to double the number of staff?
11 A. Six per cent of a 1.5 million pound restaurant per year
12 is quite a significant amount.
13
14 Q. What I am trying to understand is that if you doubled the
15 number, or nearly doubled the number, of staff did you also
16 change the balance? We talked about Friday nights and
17 Saturday nights, they were not meeting the requirements.
18 Did you also change the balance between part-time and
19 full-time that existed previously?
20 A. No, because a lot of that was determined by their
21 outside activities. I could have had 100 part-time staff.
22 There was no need to do that or if it did happen I was not
23 aware of it.
24
25 Q. So was part of problem in the previous regime that they did
26 not have enough part-timers to cover high periods, high
27 volume periods?
28 A. It was a combination of not having enough staff full
29 stop and, as I have stated before, the availability. If
30 you have 60 staff and only 7 can work Sundays or Friday
31 nights, then that is a problem.
32
33 Q. You said that by November/December 86, the systems that you
34 set up started to get put in place, and then by the
35 following year, I think it was December/January 88, you
36 said, December 87/January 88, you were actually seeing the
37 full benefits of your ----
38 A. I had actually seen it for the whole of the year.
39
40 Q. You said, "it was OK by beginning of 1988" is what I have.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is not what I understood. I thought it
43 was the end of 86 you were saying.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: You said you got your systems in place but that
46 does not mean to say you get the full benefit.
47
48 MR. RAMPTON: I understood the effect of his evidence was that
49 1987 was throughout an excellent year which is why he got
50 Manager of the Year that year.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. You started to see benefits about the
53 beginning of 1987 which was after 10 months and it was in
54 proper working order throughout 1987 to early 88?
55 A. Yes.
56
57 Q. Is that right?
58 A. I meant the whole year. 1987 was a very successful
59 year for me.
60
