Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 18
1 people to make -- to meet our standards and product
2 specifications, policies and procedures. Then we go to a
3 great extent in providing that.
4
5 Q. In the United States we know that a majority of the
6 restaurants, I think it is something around 80 per cent,
7 are franchised; is that right?
8 A. That is correct.
9
10 Q. Something like that?
11 A. Around 70.
12
13 Q. Sorry, my fault, around 70. Anyhow, it is quite a big
14 majority of the restaurants?
15 A. That is correct.
16
17 Q. How does McDonald's ensure that the franchisees do not fall
18 down on their food safety procedures?
19 A. We have -- you expressed before the operations in a
20 store. Those operations have been verified that they
21 produce a quality product, a safe product. Our major
22 emphasis in the prevention, so we start way back as far as
23 we can in the supply chain. We focus our attention at the
24 restaurants in our operations on our hygiene and procedures
25 and it is part of our agreement with our licences that they
26 will provide and they are capable of delivering a safe
27 product. If the restaurant does not meet our
28 specifications, our requirements, we work with them until
29 they meet it. If they do not, that is reason for
30 cancelling our relationship with them, terminating our
31 relationship with them.
32
33 Q. What would happen with the manager of a company restaurant
34 who, as it were, did not pull his socks up? The place was
35 still dirty or after a visit or whatever it was, what would
36 happen to him?
37 A. Of course, the first thing is we would work with him.
38 If we cannot and if he continues to not be meeting our
39 specs., he will be terminated. If he is -- and I can
40 probably quote you the statement of our chief executive
41 officer said in a partners' meeting where we had all of our
42 licensees, all of our joint venture partners around the
43 world, he said: "If there is an outbreak of a food-borne
44 disease in your restaurant, you will have people that will
45 sue you, including McDonald's people, for loss of sales and
46 we, as a corporation, will support that". That gives you
47 an indication of our commitment to food safety.
48
49 Q. Who are the actual people on behalf of McDonald's who visit
50 the restaurants to ensure that the proper standards are
51 being maintained?
52 A. We have a field, what we call "field consultants"; we
53 have supervisors; we have suppliers and we have operations,
54 we call operations people; we have quality assurance people
55 that will visit restaurants and evaluate the restaurants
56 and they will evaluate everything in a restaurant,
57 including food safety, hygiene, cleanliness.
58
59 Q. Is that system in operation around the world?
60 A. Yes, and we are well known for that system actually
