Mr. Tony Keohane:

Our payment terms are agreed with our suppliers and, broadly speaking, the period involved is approximately 30 days. We are proud of the fact that we stick to the terms we agree with our suppliers, particularly as we know that cashflow is important.

On margins and profitability, we are of the view that there is no reason to believe our margins are out of line with the marketplace. There are 150,000 companies in Ireland which are either private concerns or which, like ourselves, are subsidiaries of international businesses and which do not declare separate profits for Ireland. That is the case in the sector in which we operate. Most of our competitors are private or family-run businesses. It simply would not make sense for us to do anything other than what we are doing. The numbers for Ireland are contained within our European accounts. I am also clear that we probably supply more information than anyone else. We provide as much information as possible because we know this is important. We have no reason to believe we are in any way out of line with the remainder of the market here.

We will probably have to the take the question relating to ugly fruit away with us and give it further consideration. We do give specifications to our supply base but these are wide-ranging in nature. If there are times when such specifications cannot be delivered upon as a result of unusual circumstances such as weather, we have conversations with our suppliers. At the times to which I refer, our customers are probably more accepting of products which do not conform to the norm.

I absolutely agree that if it is stated that something is produced in Ireland, then it should be produced here. There is no question about that. I am of the view that everything in our stores which we say is produced in Ireland is actually produced here. I have no reason to believe otherwise. I think we have covered most of the questions asked.