Jinnie had spoken to Alberto before returning to her dinner guests and after transferring the money to purchase the two hotels. She had quickly told him what was happening in Bournemouth and not to be surprised that the company suddenly had a huge surplus in its property trading account. She had then told him about Canada and the need for a board meeting to approve the actions proposed and the relevant purchases. Alberto had quickly agreed to call an emergency board meeting and suggested he should try to arrange it for Sunday afternoon between the lunchtime and evening services. Jinnie had returned to her guests and decided to celebrate with a large Baileys and a fresh cup of coffee.
The twins loved Irena especially when they found out she spoke Italian and German. They had recently picked up quite a few German words as Mummy and Daddy sometimes spoke it together when they didn’t want little ears knowing what was being discussed. Jinnie had said to Paolo, “We appear to be raising children fluent in English, Italian, French and now German I only hope they are as good with maths and science as they are with languages.” Paolo replied that he had never really enjoyed science at school but had a flare for languages, so they were taking after him. Jinnie threw a cushion at him.
On the Saturday morning, while the twins were eating their regular boiled eggs and soldiers for breakfast, Jinnie asked Izzy how her meal had gone the previous evening. Izzy smiled and said, “The meal was lovely, poor George thought he was giving me a real treat and took me to the Trattoria Trevi. He was a little surprised when the receptionist greeted me by name and Alberto came over for a chat. I asked Alberto if there was anything special on the menu, and he recommended ‘Ossobuco alla Milanese’.”
Izzy continued, “I didn’t know what it was, he explained it was veal shanks and was one of his favourite meals and on the menu as a test. So, I had it and it was stupendous, a bit like lamb shanks but with veal. George had a steak and said it was really good. We both had cannoli for dessert, you know how I love it. Then coffee and Alberto offered us a liquore, I had an amaretto, but George was driving! It was a fabulous meal and I’m pretty sure Alberto gave George a big discount because of his reaction when he got the bill.”
“I’m so glad it went well,” said Jinnie. “Yes, it was a lovely evening, but I told him he didn’t have to take me to posh restaurants, next time I’d be happy going to a Toby, a Harvester, or a Chinese,” said Izzy. “So, there is going to be a next time,” said Jinnie. “Of course,” replied Izzy. “Now I’ve got some good news for you,” said Jinnie. “You’re flat is going to be finished on Tuesday, the carpet fitters are due first thing Tuesday, and the living room furniture about 11 o’clock. Jason says if you are happy he and his gang will move your things on Tuesday as soon as the carpets are down.” “Gosh,” said Izzy, “I never thought it would be this soon.”
“I foresee one little problem,” said Jinnie, “there are no curtains at any of the windows, there are no cushions for your sofa and armchairs, and you need cutlery, crockery and pots and pans. How do you fancy a shopping trip this afternoon and I can buy all the stuff you need?” “I’d love that,” replied Izzy. “OK,” said Jinnie, “let’s have an early lunch then we can go to Dunelm, The Range and IKEA. Paolo can look after the twins. Jason said if we get curtains he will put up the curtain rails or poles on Monday.”
Jinnie and Izzy had arrived home on Saturday evening with Jinnie’s Lexus packed with all stuff they had discussed, plus vases, rugs, mirrors and pictures. Two IKEA self-assembly side tables were being delivered on Monday and Jinnie had already told Izzy that could be another job for Jason and his team.
***
On Sunday it was Mrs Walsh’s day for lunch and Jinnie was delighted to see she was roasting a shoulder of lamb. She wandered down the garden with her father and helped pick fresh vegetables for lunch. There were still parsnips and some greens and James had loads of onions hanging up in strings in his shed. The twins came down to join them and Jinnie introduced them to the dapple mare who for the first time she could remember didn’t have a foal. ‘She must be getting old,’ thought Jinnie.
Mrs Walsh braised the onions just as Jinnie and Penny remembered her doing when they lived at home. When she served them up, Penny said, ‘Mum, how wonderful, I haven’t had braised onions in ages.” After lunch Jinnie skipped out on the washing up and headed over to Maple House for the emergency board meeting.
With the Sunday lunch service over, the board assembled in the meeting room and Nigel had arranged for a tired looking Brian and Brooke to join the meeting by Zoom and for it to be broadcast on the big screen TV. Brian gave the board an abbreviated update on the situation and what they would like to happen. Of course, the first questions from the board were how much is this going to cost, do we have the funds and how long before we see a return on the investment. Brian flashed a spreadsheet on the screen and talked the board through it.
The agreed value for Baker’s Fried Chicken was CAN$12 million, just under £7 million, so that’s what they would have to put into Bearcat Foods Inc for 50% of its shares. Those shares would be held by Bearcat Food Limited, a 100% owned subsidiary of Trattoria Trevi (Fastfood) Limited. Bearcat Foods Inc would have several subsidiaries once it was set up. The other 50% of Bearcat Food Inc would be owned by Baker’s Fried Chicken in exchange for its 14 outlets and small offices. The £7 million would be used to buy Ottawa Chicken Processors, Boucher Brothers Chilled Transport and to lease offices. It would also be used to rebrand the 14 outlets as Aunty JoJo’s Chicken Shacks. The spreadsheet showed a small reserve when the subsidiaries had been purchased.
Brian explained that the chicken processors were already making a small profit supplying about 20 independent fried chicken outlets, and this would only increase with the addition of 14 more Aunty JoJo’s outlets. The chilled transport was making a tiny profit but if it was delivering all the output of the processing plant, it would be making a decent profit and, of course, the 14 outlets were making a good profit already and should continue to do so. So, there would be a return on input from day one with only the offices and central staff as overheads.
Brooke spoke next, saying that once the subsidies had been purchased and the first outlet was refurbished and open as a Aunty JoJo’s they would register the subsidiaries with Bearcat names. They would also look for new outlets outside the old Baker Fried Chicken franchise area and set up their own franchise operation. Brooke had a view of the board on her laptop and was delighted to see several heads nodding along with her. Brian stepped back in, from his living room, saying, “Buying more outlets initially hits the bottom line, but ultimately leads to a higher profit, while going down the franchise route is cheaper initially as the franchisee pays the setup costs and we make our profit by selling them the franchise and chicken products. We have discussed this, and we think we should go down both routes at the same time.”
The discussion went on for a while and Jinnie got the feeling that most of the board were in favour. Eventually, Alberto called for a vote and the motion to proceed with the deal went through with just one abstention.
***
On Monday morning Jason and his gang arrived to find the heap of things Jinnie and Paolo had dumped in the middle of the living room. Jinnie saw him arrive and headed over to tell him where things were to go, which curtains went where, where the rugs were to go once the carpets were laid, which wall mirrors and pictures were to go on. Jason sent someone to B&Q for curtain poles, curtain rails and curtain hooks and got on with his tasks. Jinnie retreated to her garden office and, as usual, started with her emails. As normal there were umpteen that she glanced at before deleting, she quickly found an email from Monica reporting developments in the West Indies.
Jinnie skim-read the email, worried that there might be some bad news in the monthly report, finding nothing obviously bad she restarted reading the report from the beginning. Monica started with an update on Aunty JoJo’s. Since her last report, two new outlets had opened in Barbados and three in Trinidad. Everywhere was trading profitability and income had comfortably exceeded expenditure. Their two delivery kitchens in Barbados were highly profitable and she reported that although the Trinidad kitchen had only been open just over a week it was trading well.
Then she reported that Keith had started work on further outlets in St Lucia and Granada. His crews had also started work on the first of four outlets in Antigua and two in Jamaica. Monica also reported work was about to start on the Antigua Hybrid TT Continental/Aunty JoJo’s but said she was sure Trevor would include full details in his monthly report. Jinnie did a quick count and concluded that they now had over 30 Caribbean branches up and running and eight in build plus three delivery kitchens and sighed in satisfaction.
Jinnie looked for Trevor’s report in her in-tray, but it wasn’t yet in, however she found the Fastfood division report which had obviously been written by Brooke’s deputy. But it had been submitted by Brooke who had added a bit about Bearcat Foods, with a note that this paragraph was only on the copy of the reports sent to directors involved in the project. The paragraph contained nothing she didn’t already know. Brooke’s report talked about the continued expansion of the Artisan Sandwiches and how nationally eight new standalone branches had opened. The first of the hybrid Sybaritic/Artisan outlets at Tallyho Corner had been opened to much acclaim. The local paper, which had previously given a five-star review to the Sybaritic had revisited it and the Artisan and declared the combination a triumph. Jinnie saw Bill Furr’s hand behind that.
Brooke’s report said that after a week and a half’s trading the concept seemed to be working, but it was too early to call it a success. The next hybrid was to be in the County Mall, Crawley, and was due to open in a couple of weeks and several others were in for planning permission or being designed. Brooke then reported that in the last month the U.K. chain of Aunty JoJo’s Chicken Shacks had expanded considerably. Six new outlets in London had brought the number of outlets in London to 17 and five more sites had been acquired. The first three outlets had opened in Birmingham and three more sites had been acquired and one new restaurant had opened in central Brighton.
Brooke finally said that sales in the Artisan outlet onboard Britannia had exceeded all expectations and P&O were taking up the option to add outlets on the two further ships that were due to be in maintenance later that year. Belinda was cooperating with the cruise lines and the shipyards on design.
The South Coast chicken chain of eight restaurants and nine takeaways had been added to the Aunty JoJo’s family and at the time of writing six takeaways had been rebranded and the other three would be within a week. The restaurants would follow. It was also reported that the division had been looking for more takeaway outlets as they were cheap and simple to set up. A target of five a month was being considered. Once again Jinnie noted that the division was growing quickly and she wonder if she needed to talk to Brooke about the size of the divisional HQ in Crawley, was it still big enough?
Jinnie checked her inbox again and this time found Trevor’s monthly report had arrived. The report started with the TT Carlton (Barbados) and Jinnie was delighted that it was way ahead of budget. Trevor reported that Belinda and Keith had drawn up a design for an enlarged restaurant and kitchen, incorporating the site of the gentleman’s outfitters next door and it had been submitted for planning permission.
As an aside, Trevor reported that the prime minister had dined in the restaurant four evenings ago and had sought Trevor out to say that she had seen the planning application and would personally ensure it was successful. Trevor then reported that the TT Continental (Antigua)/Aunty JoJo’s had received planning permission, but not before he had to explain to the planning officer exactly how they planned to operate. Work on the hybrid TT Continental/Aunty JoJo’s was to start on the coming Monday and was scheduled to lasts five weeks. The contract with Carnival Corporation was in place and they had already commenced promoting the ‘Gourmet Experience’ on cruises overnighting in Antigua and take up at this early stage was promising.
There was also a report from the newly appointed head of legal affairs, who said that the last month had been exceptionally busy with his department completing agreements on the purchase of leases and freehold on some 20+ premises in the U.K. for the Fastfood division. Cooperating with the local lawyers on the purchase and lease of properties in Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, St Lucia, and Antigua. Legal affairs had also worked on agreements with Carnival and P&O to provide sales and licensing. The company structure in the Caribbean had been considerably revised with individual companies being set up for each island they traded on, all being subsidiaries of the Barbados-based parent company. They were currently working on projects in Canada and Bournemouth. He pointed out that the department had racked up considerable hours on travel to the West Indies and it might be sensible to bring Caribbean legal services in-house there, as the TT group were paying a lot of money for outsourced legal work. Jinnie made a note to talk to the Caribbean board about this last point, she wondered how much it would cost to employ Michael Watson and have him set up a legal department. Would they have to buy him out of his current company or could he remain as a non-active partner?
Brian’s financial report made interesting reading. It was clear that the company was making money. Sales were excellent, but the expansion plans were testing them. The Hotel Group, Trattoria Trevi Restaurants, FastFood and Events, were all net contributors for the last month, but Brian warned that for the current month expansion plans were a drain on reserves and only a substantial director’s loan had saved them from having to take a short-term bank loan. However, Brian pointed out that this was a very short-term position and that as soon as the Supreme Hotel came into formal group ownership it would be a contributor, as would Baker Fried Chicken. South Coast Chicken had been assimilated into the FastFood Division in the last few days of the period and was expected make a positive contribution in the next month. Jinnie liked what she had read Brian hadn’t minced his words, the group had been a little stretched financially, but it was only for a short period, and she was certain that if it had been necessary, their bankers would have been only too willing to lend the money and collect interest payments.
***
On Tuesday afternoon Jinnie walked round to Izzy’s flat and finding the front door wide open walked upstairs. There she found Jason undercoating the door set that was to be installed between the landing and the house. Jason said, “I suppose you have come to have one last look at the flat before it’s handed over to Izzy later,” and handed over a bunch of door keys saying, “You better have these, I will be gone by the time she is back with the twins. There are flat keys and front door keys, I’ll hang on to these door keys until the interconnecting door set is installed.”
Jinnie opened the front door that opened into the living room, it was simply beautiful now it was fully furnished. Her first thought was it looked like a show home, everything was new and perfect. Jinnie strolled through into the kitchen and her eye fell on three vases of fresh flowers sitting on the breakfast bar. She called to Jason, “Where did these beautiful flowers come from?” Jason replied, “Gosh, I had forgotten them. They are a housewarming present from Wright Refurbishment, Belinda brought them when she did her last walk round this morning. I am supposed to put one on the living room credenza and one on the little tables in the hall and the landing.” “I’ll do that,” answered Jinnie.
She continued on her inspection. The bedroom was perfect, Izzy’s bed had been positioned facing the window and her dressing table and stool in front of the make-up mirror. Jinnie opened a built-in wardrobe and Izzy’s clothes had been moved. Jinnie checked the bathroom and once again all Izzy’s things had been moved, even her bathrobe was hung on the hook on the back of the door and her shower gel and shampoo were on a shelf in the shower. Jinnie moved the flowers that Belinda had obviously arranged, locked the front door and thanked Jason.
When Izzy came in with the twins, Jinnie handed over the keys and said, “It’s time for you to have the key of the door, do you want time on your own to view your new home alone?” Izzy replied, “Definitely not, come on twins let’s go and explore. I know you haven’t seen my new flat yet but mummy has, so we can go first and mummy can come last.” They walked to the flat’s front door and Izzy unlocked the door and stepped in closely followed by the twins.
Jinnie followed on behind, the twins had climbed the stairs and were waiting by the flat door but Izzy had stopped to read the card on the flowers. It said, “Welcome to your new home from everyone at Wright Refurbishment.” Jinnie saw Izzy wipe her eyes. Izzy opened the door to the flat revealing the living room, stepped over the threshold and said, “Gosh, I didn’t expect anything like this, it’s just wonderful. The twins were quick on the sofa and had the TV on and found a cartoon. Izzy and Jinnie walked on to the kitchen, the bedroom and the bathroom, everywhere saying, “This is perfect, just perfect.”
Izzy said, “I want a little housewarming party. Can you and the twins pop round on Friday evening, that way the twins can stay a bit later. I want to invite Sir Nigel and, of course, George so you can meet him properly.
***
Jinnie parked the Lexus in a director’s slot and walked into the SuperBurger reception where the receptionist said, “Good morning Dame Jinnie.” Jinnie headed for the lift and pressed the call button. As she stood waiting, she again thought, ‘This reception is shabby, it really doesn’t show a major company in its best light. I wonder if I should bring it up again?’ Jinnie arrived at the boardroom’s anteroom where the board gathered before meetings for coffee and poured herself a coffee from the vacuum jug. SuperBurger coffee was so much better than when she had attended her first board meeting.
As she stood sipping the coffee, and cringing at the dark wood-panelled walls, the financial director wandered over to Jinnie and smiling said, “I thought you weren’t going to be with us today Dame Jinnie.” “My overseas business has been put back a bit,” replied Jinnie. “That’s handy,” continued the FD. “You can hear me report on the refurbished Crawley branch live and not have to read it in the minutes.” “You look happy,” said Jinnie. “I guess it is good news.” “It is excellent news,” said the FD.
The next person to speak to Jinnie was Sir Percy, “Hello, Jinnie, I’m glad to see you made it. I just had to come over and say how impressed I was with your refurbishment company. When the managing director came to talk to me about my office I was amazed that a women had such knowledge of the trade. And the designer she brought with her was brilliant. I loved his ideas even if he was gay.” “Belinda is very good,” said Jinnie. “She grew her company from nothing to several million annual turnover before we took them in-house. I am delighted we did; her division contributes considerably to DKL’s profits.”
“Well,” said Sir Percy, “I have asked her to quote to do up my office, this anteroom and the boardroom. She is also drawing up a separate quote for reception.” Excellent,” said Jinnie, “I was only looking at reception as I came in. It isn’t very nice; all the dark wood makes it very 1950s and the lighting is awful. The receptionist is lovely, but don’t you think she would look better still in a nice smart uniform.”
Sir Percy, who seemed to be in an unusually good mood, called the board meeting to order and began the normal series of departmental reports with the sales director. He reported that sales were again down but much less than in recent weeks but, looking at the branches that had switched to the new coffee and new menu offering, the slump in burger sales appeared to have been arrested over the past fortnight. The refurbished Crawley branch had totally bucked the trend and had seen a large increase in sales with burger sales in particular increasing by about 50% and a matching increase in fries since the new menu had been implemented. Coffee sales were up over 100% and the increased footfall had resulted in increased sales of just about every product.
A survey of customer satisfaction had revealed that the new menu was universally preferred to the old one and the choice of fried onions, instead of raw onions in the salad stuff in burgers, was proving extremely popular. The second and third test refurbished branches had opened in Southampton and Newcastle and although only open in the new format and with the new menu for a little over a week, they had again reversed the decline in sales and were increasing daily.
The HR director then reported that she had visited all three of the refurbished branches and staff there were delighted with the new working environment, and particularly happy that the big jump in sales was being reflected in much higher bonuses. She had eaten in all the branches, and the food was indeed much improved. She went on to say she had anonymously chatted with customers who had said what an improvement the refurbishment had made and wondered if it was only this branch that was being given the treatment as other branches in the same town were untouched.
Unusually, Sir Percy asked the finance director to report next, he usually came last. This time he chose to brush over the overall financial position saying quickly that in the past fortnight their financial position had remained stable. However, he then called up a chart showing the turnover increase at the Crawley outlet. Before the makeover it had been trading profitably but only just. Since the refurbishment the sales had taken off. The next chart was the branch daily profit, it had gone up very quickly and was still improving. He said that if sales stabilised at the current level, the projection was it would repay the cost of the refurbishment by the board meeting after next, but all the signs were that it would be sooner.
A smiling Sir Percy asked if similar things were happening at the other two refurbished branches and the FD said although it was a little earlier in the process both were on a similar path to that taken by the Crawley restaurant. Sir Percy then turned to the property director to report on the refurbishment process. He replied that of the dozen restaurants originally chosen as test sites, three were complete, two more would be open in the next couple of days and three more by the end of the next week, and all 12 were on programme to be open before the next board meeting.
Sir Percy then asked the managing director about the outline plan, discussed at the last board meeting to place orders for a larger number of restaurants to be refurbished in area batches and a rollout of the new menu universally. The MD didn’t seem to be quite as enthusiastic as the other directors who had already spoken and said plans for the new menu rollout were ‘in hand’ with about 25% complete but he was awaiting approval of the board before the completion of the rollout was completed as it was such a drastic step they were taking. As for the organising of the refurbishment of batches of restaurants, that was the property director’s responsibility.
Sir Percy turned back to the PD and asked about his plans. He replied that a group of 32 outlets in South London had been identified and Belinda had been asked to tender for the work. The tender was due back tomorrow and subject to board approval he would immediately place the order. He continued, saying that similar-sized batches of restaurants were being readied for Central London, West London, North London and East London. He planned to release them in sequence so as not to overwhelm the contractor. The draft programme called for a batch to be completed each month, approximately one branch a day. In discussion with Belinda, she had agreed this was practical and that each branch would take three or four days.
Sir Percy was clearly delighted with this answer and asked if there was any indication of the cost of a batch. Clive, the procurement director, said, “I can have an attempt at answering that. We currently have 932 branches, the first branch cost £36,000 to refurbish, but subsequent branches have been less. The initial design costs were included in the first branch. Every branch is slightly different, for example some need more furniture, some less. We have benefited from bulk buying of numerous items, and I believe the average cost of the first 12 branches we have contracted for is nearer £30,000 each. On that basis it means the cost to refurbish all 932 will be a touch under £28 million.”
Turning to the financial director, Sir Percy asked, “Can we afford that?” The reply was, “We have much more than that in our reserves, so the simple answer is yes. When we look at the refurbishment of just the three outlets, we have numbers for it showing us that they have been turned from just about making money to making a healthy profit virtually overnight. As I pointed out earlier, the Crawley outlet will have paid back its refurbishment costs in around six weeks of reopening, I see no reason that the other 11 will be any different. I think my reply should be, ‘Can we afford not to’. However, if we look at outgoings against income it is obvious that the whole of the £28 million is never going to be at risk. We are going to have branches paying back investments well before we spend that amount.”
A clearly happy Sir Percy then addressed the board, “I’m pleased with the developments reported today. We seem to have found a way out of our downward spiral. Now I propose we vote to proceed with the plan and roll out the new menu nationwide. Any objections?” Looking around the table, Jinnie saw a sea of nodding heads. “Good,” said Sir Percy, “I think that has been passed unanimously, so Jonathan you have your board decision and I expect it to be implemented without prevarication.” Jinnie was a little surprised at the clear rebuke of the MD.
Sir Percy continued, “I’m delighted that some of you have clearly used your own initiative and thought about what we are trying to achieve, the reinvigoration of the company and a return to growth. Now I think we need to vote on proceeding with the branch refurbishment programme as discussed earlier.” Jinnie decided that she needed to intervene and spoke up saying, “Before we vote I have a couple of points I feel we need to talk about. Has anyone else realised that even at one refurbished restaurant a day we are looking at two and a half years to complete this project, by that time they will all need a refresh. At the last board meeting we discussed an advertising campaign, and the marketing director was tasked with drawing one up. I think I can help with the first point and I’m sure James would appreciate being able to talk about his ideas on the campaign.”
Without pausing Jinnie continued, “As Belinda’s boss she came to me to discuss the project. As much as she appreciates the constant stream of orders this project would elicit, she feels that there could be big saving to be made if it was restructured and I agree. In the proposed form she is unable to get the best possible discount for bulk buying. So here is what she would like to talk to procurement about. DKL are willing to back her in setting up a group of Wright Refurbishment dedicated to this project and any others SuperBurger may want to place with Wright Refurbishment. Belinda has recently taken additional office space in her Manor Royal block in anticipation of expanding and is willing to install the dedicated group there. But she needs a commitment from SuperBurger.”
“Go on,” said Sir Percy, “please explain.” Jinnie said, “This is quite a commitment for her in staff, computer equipment and software. But Belinda feels that if you were to commit to ordering all 932 branch refurbishments, she could commit to refurbishing double the number on your program, meaning completing the program in fifteen months. But on top of that she has been talking to suppliers and they have assured her that if she places exclusive contracts with them they can reduce costs even further, she believes by probably as much as £5,000 a branch that’s over £4,600,000.”
“That’s some saving,” said Sir Percy, who turned to the marketing director and said, “I’m sorry James, I was so excited by what we had achieved so far I clean forgot what I had asked you to report.” “That’s OK, Sir Percy,” replied James, “I have been investigating a national advertising campaign. I have looked at TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet. Let me first say that I have spoken to several TV channels, and they are expensive. Looking at their viewer profiles they don’t match our customer profile very well. We sell mainly to the under 35s and they just don’t watch linear TV anymore. They are into streaming, and music radio. I spoke to Dame Jinnie as she has had a similar advertising experience. Together we have come up with a strategy for a campaign mainly on music radio and Netflix with a little on music television. Dame Jinnie has a contact in the local newspaper world who she can plant a story with and almost guarantee it will be ‘leaked’ to the national press. That’s free advertising to the older generations who still read newspapers and it is bound to be picked up by news radio and TV.”
James looked around the table and saw he had everyone’s attention and Jinnie nodded encouragement. He went on, “I have had a chat with Talk TV and Radio, who produced a series of radio and TV adverts for Jinnie’s wedding dress business. Like us they wanted to aim at the younger market. They made a series of six adverts videotaped at real weddings with a voiceover. The adverts were suitable for TV and the voiceover for radio. I have had quotes from Talk TV to make the adverts and run a campaign and from Global to run a radio campaign on their stations; Capital, Heart, Smooth, Radio X and Gold. Dame Jinnie tells me that Talk TV is in the same group as the Sun so one way or another the newspaper will become aware of our campaign.”
“OK,” said the finance director, “I got to ask, how much?” “Not cheap,” said James. “Making the adverts, and the two campaigns comes to about £5 million. A little more than we will save if we place all 932 branches with Wright Refurbishment. One thing I didn’t mention, the six advert are ours. If we want to rerun the campaign or to run it on a music video TV channel, Netflix, Amazon Prime or another streaming station, we are free to do so.” “OK, I’m convinced,” said Sir Percy. “I am amending the vote, I now propose we place the order for all 932 branch refurbishments from Wright Refurbishment but feed them in fortnightly batches, as previously agreed. The savings can be used for the advertising campaign as discussed. Now a show of hands please from those in favour.”
The vote was unanimous, and a smiling Sir Percy closed the meeting. As most of the directors gathered in the anteroom for more coffee and sandwiches, Sir Percy cornered Jinnie and said, “Thank you Jinnie. I must admit to being a little bit bothered about appointing you to the board, but you have been a breath of fresh air and have not been afraid to voice an opinion. Your ideas have reinvigorated the board. I don’t think that you will accept, but I must ask anyway, would you accept the position of managing director?” Without hesitation, Jinnie answered, “I’m sorry Percy but I would have to give up one of my current directorships and I’m not ready to do that.”
In Chapter 28 – The flat is finished
© WorthingGooner 2025
