Day 055 - 25 Nov 94 - Page 60
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest is listen to the further
2 questions that Mr. Rampton is going to ask you, and if
3 whether the market as a whole is expanding or not might
4 make some difference to your answer, draw our attention to
5 that.
6
7 MR. RAMPTON: What I am concerned to draw your attention to is
8 really two things, Ms. Dibb, whether the whole eating-out
9 market is bigger in 1993 than it was in 1992, I quite agree
10 this chart does not inform us. What it, surely, does
11 inform us about is this, does it not, that the whole of the
12 eating-out market -- sorry, the whole of the quick service
13 restaurant market in 1993 was two per cent larger than it
14 had been in 1992?
15 A. Yes.
16
17 Q. It also tells us, does it not, that two per cent increase
18 was contributed by fish and chips and fish and chips alone;
19 is that right?
20 A. Yes.
21
22 Q. Possibly with the exception of Harry Ramsden in the north
23 of England, fish and chip shops do not advertise, do they?
24 A. They do not advertise on national television.
25
26 Q. No. What conclusion then do you draw from these figures,
27 assuming them to be correct, about the effects of
28 advertising, let us say, by burger houses on television?
29 A. I am afraid this information does not give me very much
30 on which to draw any conclusions. The share of the market,
31 as I have pointed out, I would, in order to draw some
32 conclusions about the overall market, I would like to see
33 figures over a longer period and I would also like to see
34 some information on the overall size of the market, not
35 just the percentage share of the market. I find it very
36 difficult to draw any conclusions along the lines you have
37 suggested from this information.
38
39 Q. May be it will help you, may be it will not, I do not know,
40 if you turn over two pages to page 7 where you see the
41 competition within the burger house market in this country
42 reflected in percentage figures once again and what you can
43 see from that, at any rate, in proportional terms is that
44 McDonald's has by 1993 been successful as compared with
45 1992 at the expense of other burger houses, has it not?
46 A. Yes.
47
48 Q. If it should turn out to be right that the principal --
49 I do not say "only" and I have never said "only" -- effect
50 of McDonald's advertising is to take customers away from
51 other organisations, companies, including perhaps in the
52 end fish and chip shops who are selling similar kinds of
53 "unhealthy food", then the impact, am I right, on the
54 nation's health at large is virtually insignificant?
55 A. These figures do not provide any information on how
56 much of any of these particular products may be being
57 consumed. They do show an increase in the market share to
58 McDonald's, but again this gives no overall information on
59 the total size of the market. We do not know whether the
60 market itself has grown or shrunk or remained static. The
