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

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