Day 197 - 07 Dec 95 - Page 08
1 although people thought they were actually earning quite
2 well, I mean, they were no doing excessive hours to do
3 that. I mean, the start rates were not that excessive by
4 any means. They were not very good rates of pay, really,
5 for what they were expected to do.
6
7 Q. If we move on to page 35, at the top of page 35, this is a
8 PR for 1988: "Other results such as food loss have been
9 quite appalling", etc. "However, you must realise that
10 such levels of performance will not be tolerated for
11 ever". This appears throughout again on the PRs of both
12 you and Mark Davis about getting food costs down. What do
13 they mean "will not be tolerated for ever"?
14 A. Well, basically, there were times when I had problems
15 hitting targets for various reasons. What they are
16 actually highlighting here saying that it was not up to
17 standard, and that it would not be tolerated and,
18 basically, it was a case of get it back in or there would
19 be some form of disciplinary action or something like that
20 would be taken if I had not actually achieved or turned
21 the figures around.
22
23 Q. If we note under the list in the middle of the page some
24 quality aspects, Mac toaster timer not working,
25 refrigeration too warm -- just note those. This is under
26 Mark Davis, is it not?
27 A. Yes.
28
29 Q. On page 36 it says: "Colchester's PAC" -- that is profit
30 after controllables ---
31 A. Yes.
32
33 Q. -- "for the year to date has been average." Did that
34 change when you were Manager?
35 A. In what respect?
36
37 Q. PAC.
38 A. In my early time as a Manager, I did find it hard to
39 control it to start with.
40
41 Q. Sorry, is this when you were a Store Manager?
42 A. After about a year.
43
44 Q. Sorry, you were Store Manager at this time?
45 A. Yes.
46
47 Q. Yes. It says here "In February" -- this is under that
48 section "Profit" -- "a food cost of over 30.1 was
49 achieved. After looking in detail at the reasons behind
50 it I was assured by yourself the same thing would not
51 happen again and then it did happen again". Could you
52 explain that paragraph?
53 A. What it is relating to at the time, as I said, I was a
54 new Manager, I was still learning how to control things
55 and I was having problems controlling the food costs, and
56 it was coming out too high through not being controlled
57 properly, or it might not have been doing ordering
58 correctly -- a number of things would have been built into
59 that. I had a bad figure, I cannot remember the exact
60 reason why that one was, but obviously I said it would not
