Day 041 - 28 Oct 94 - Page 42
1 have a view that quality products served well in clean
2 restaurants, good value for money prices, is something that
3 people from wherever they may come from can relate to and
4 has a benefit to. It is sound business and marketing sense
5 to take your own qualities and strengths and try and use
6 those to move into new areas of business -- by that I mean
7 new countries.
8
9 Q. But is McDonald's capable of diversifying if it wished to?
10 A. I am sure we are capable of -- again depending on the
11 word "diversifying".
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I was going to say, do you mean ---
14
15 MR. MORRIS: Say, for example -----
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- broadening the menu or adding different
18 kinds of operation altogether.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: No, I am talking about the menu. I mean, I give an
21 extreme example -- it is extreme -- say, for example, the
22 sale of beef was banned in this country for BSE or any
23 other concerns, McDonald's would be capable of diversifying
24 its menu to compensate for that, could it, do you feel?
25 A. Well, McDonald's again here already has from that
26 perspective a diverse menu. We have chicken, fish, we have
27 salads in some of our restaurants; it is not solely reliant
28 on that proposition. It is because customers, our
29 customers, and the QSR sector customers, desire the
30 products that we sell that we keep selling them.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you have a particular possibility, for
33 instance, you want to put? There is an example referred to
34 in The times yet again this morning, "McPloughmans", I
35 think it was called, which flew like a lead balloon, if
36 Mr. Preston was accurately reported. But do you have a
37 particular thing you want to put?
38
39 MR. MORRIS: You say that you are capable of diversifying, but
40 you choose to stick with the menu items, the general
41 categories of menu items, that you have?
42 A. Yes, we believe that is what we do best, yes, but it
43 is -----
44
45 Q. But other stores sell other kinds of products?
46 A. Yes. The question is we do not sit back and suddenly
47 decide that this is what we should or should not be doing.
48 It is our customers that give us the clue as to whether we
49 are on the right track or not as, I may say, they did with
50 McPloughmans.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I am not assuming anything I read in
53 the papers, with all respect to the press, is true unless
54 it is actually given in evidence in court.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: Just while we are on the subject of McPloughman,
57 was that promoted on the TV and all the normal ways?
58 A. No, it was not.
59
60 Q. So when you promote certain items -- I notice the films