Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 15
1 say you became Supervisor, and then on paragraph 3 on
2 page 2, you quickly realised the Colchester High Street
3 restaurant was being badly managed by Ray Coton in all
4 aspects, affecting quality, service and cleanliness; yes?
5 A. If that is what it says, that is what I said.
6
7 Q. This was despite the store getting B grades in their -- was
8 it a full field or was it an audit? Were you aware of the
9 grades that the store was getting?
10 A. No.
11
12 Q. You were not aware of the grades the store was getting?
13 A. No.
14
15 Q. You did not investigate that?
16 A. I certainly investigated the restaurant when I became
17 the Supervisor.
18
19 Q. Yes, I think we are all aware of that. Did you investigate
20 what the Company thought about the store from its audit and
21 grades?
22 A. I believe I kept what you call an audit trail on the
23 restaurant. My plan, as a Supervisor, was to build up a
24 picture of what I thought the standards in the restaurant
25 were and to take what action I thought was necessary to
26 ensure that the store progressed in terms of sales and
27 profitability. I seem to recall that Ray was not doing a
28 great job before I took over either, that there was
29 possibly -- I think maybe his previous PR or something was
30 not very good and that the standards of the restaurant were
31 slipping before I took over, I think.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me ask about that, because there is
34 absolutely no reason why Mr. Coton's standards should
35 suddenly slip over the precipice just at the moment you
36 arrive. If you could quickly realise that Colchester High
37 Street restaurant was badly managed by Ray Coton in all
38 aspects affecting quality, service and cleanliness, that
39 must have been obvious to Mr. Davis, must it not?
40 A. I would have thought so, yes.
41
42 Q. And it must have been obvious to Mr. Atherton, as well?
43 A. I think so, yes.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: But the store got no grade lower than B on its full
46 field, quoted in the annual performance review in
47 November 1990; got no Cs, no Ds, no Es and no failures.
48 Have you seen stores getting C grades?
49 A. I have seen -- have I seen stores getting C grades?
50 Have I seen a store get a C grade? I have seen stores get
51 F grades. I have given store F grades. I have given
52 stores C grades.
53
54 Q. It happens quite regularly, does it not, Cs, Ds, even Fs?
55 A. It happens quite regularly? No, not really. I think
56 that it is more frequently that stores get Bs and so on in
57 terms of standards.
58
59 Q. I understand that but -----
60
