Day 059 - 01 Dec 94 - Page 08
1 needed.
2
3 Q. Who actually bought the equipment, you or Sun Valley?
4 A. Sun Valley.
5
6 Q. Suppose it came to your attention, Mr. Oakley, through your
7 Quality Assurance Department that, for example, animals
8 which are being slaughtered were not being properly stunned
9 before they were stuck, suppose that happened, what would
10 you do about it?
11 A. We would, first of all, verify that this was the case
12 and, if it were the case, we would discontinue purchasing
13 from the supplier and the supplier understands that very
14 well.
15
16 Q. For these suppliers, Mr. Oakley, is McDonald's an important
17 customer?
18 A. A very important customer, yes.
19
20 Q. How often do you nowadays, yourself personally, you,
21 Mr. Oakley, get to speak to or meet the suppliers yourself?
22 A. Not very frequently today. I have responsibility for
23 departments in McDonald's and 13 countries in Europe and,
24 therefore, I would not speak to the suppliers frequently.
25 I would certainly meet them at an annual suppliers meeting
26 and, as and when demanded, I would certainly go and visit a
27 supplier if I needed to for some specific reason.
28
29 Q. We see what the suppliers say that their position is in
30 relation to beef and chicken on the following two pages,
31 one and a half pages. Again I am not going to read them
32 out. What I wanted to ask you was this, how far are you
33 confident that they adhere to what they state to be their
34 positions and comply with what you state to be your
35 requirements?
36 A. I am as confident as I can be without being at each of
37 these suppliers all the time. We operate what we call a
38 random supplier visit policy, which means although the QA
39 department have to make mandatory visits to the suppliers,
40 they also make unannounced visits to the suppliers. This
41 is done completely at random. It is something I personally
42 started because we cannot be at the suppliers the whole
43 time.
44
45 For example, if we were to visit Sun Valley this week and
46 they had got a comfort feeling from that and think we are
47 not going to be back again for another six or nine months,
48 they might have a surprise to find that we are there again
49 next week and the week after. It is completely
50 unannounced.
51
52 If you operate a completely unannounced supplier visit
53 programme, as we do, the supplier never knows when you are
54 coming and has to be on his toes the whole time. So, I am
55 as confident as I can be without being there personally the
56 whole time.
57
58 Q. Do you have any suspicion that the people within your
59 company who are responsible for these things may be slack,
60 that they do not care about animal welfare when they carry
