Day 245 - 07 May 96 - Page 02

     
     1                                      Tuesday, 7th May 1996.
     2
     3   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, Mr. Preston is here.  Before I put him
     4        back in the witness box, there are a couple of things.
     5
     6        Your Lordship asked for figures for a number of restaurants
     7        in various categories in different parts of the world.
     8        What we have done is to copy 3 pages from the Annual Report
     9        for the year 1992 and the year 1995.  If I could hand those
    10        in.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I have them here.
    13
    14   MR. RAMPTON:  They give everything but the figures for the
    15        British Company.  That, Mr. Preston will tell your Lordship
    16        about in a moment.
    17
    18        On the first page at the top, your Lordship will see in a
    19        little block, "system-wide restaurants".  That tells us the
    20        number in the whole world and the number of countries in
    21        operation at the end of 1995.
    22
    23        On the next page, at the bottom of the tables, there is an
    24        entry "restaurants at year end", and then there is the
    25        breakdown that your Lordship asked for for the world as
    26        between franchisees and the Company and other modes of
    27        operation.
    28
    29        Then, my Lord, finally on the last page, just above the
    30        middle of the page (this relates to the USA), it is a
    31        breakdown of the operation by category in the United States
    32        during 1995.
    33
    34        If your Lordship wants Mr. Preston to do so, he can tell
    35        you what the expression "satellite restaurant" means.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest -- I assume you have got some
    38        things to ask Mr. Preston if only to put in the statement
    39        which is dated 8th March.
    40
    MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, that is right.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You can ask any other questions you want
    44        about numbers.  I will read this, probably tonight, and if
    45        there are any other questions I want to ask, I can ask Mr.
    46        Preston myself.
    47
    48   MR. RAMPTON:  Precisely.  My Lord, that is all I was going to do
    49        so far as his later statement is concerned.  I was tempted,
    50        in view of the rare honour we have of a visit from members 
    51        of the press, to ask him some questions, but the way 
    52        I propose to deal with that, if I may do it in this way, is 
    53        to say now that copies of his supplementary statement,
    54        together with all its appendices, are available to members
    55        of the press on application to Mrs Brinley-Codd or will be.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, very well.  You take your own course.
    58
    59   MR. RAMPTON:  Mr. Preston, would you go into the witness box,
    60        please?