Statement from
The health and safety of our guests and team members has always been our first priority, and we continue taking measures to keep our restaurants safe. That is why we introduced a permanent Paid Sick Leave program early last month, closed our dining rooms on
We are also focused on ensuring we adapt quickly to successfully navigate this situation. Our restaurant teams across all our brands enhanced their To Go offerings, which has enabled Olive Garden to double their already strong off-premise sales and
At the same time, we are preserving cash. We have significantly reduced expenses, including marketing, and deferred nearly all of our capital spending, which includes opening new restaurants. Additionally, we are making adjustments at the Restaurant Support Center to match our current operating model. This morning we announced that we will be furloughing some of our team members at the support center and reducing pay for the remaining team members. Senior executives are taking a 50 percent reduction as I continue to forego my salary until we are successfully on the other side of this. Finally, we have taken a new term loan to provide further liquidity.
I want to express my gratitude for the 190,000 team members who make up the Darden family. To those serving our guests every day: I am incredibly proud of how hard you are working to support our communities during a time when the comfort of a warm meal is more vital than ever. And to our furloughed team members: hang in there. We will get through this. And when our dining rooms reopen, we will be together as a family once again, ready to deliver exceptional experiences to our loyal guests.
The challenges of this unprecedented situation are far from over. However, I remain confident that the strength of our portfolio, the power of our competitive advantages and the resiliency of our people will enable us to successfully navigate our way through it.
Business Update
For the fourth quarter to date through
WE 3/1 WE 3/8 WE 3/15 WE 3/22 WE 3/29 WE 4/5 QTD 4/5
Olive Garden 3.1% 0.0% (18.7)% (71.1)% (64.7)% (59.7)% (34.5)%
LongHorn Steakhouse 4.6% 3.1% (15.9)% (69.2)% (75.3)% (71.9)% (36.4)%
Fine Dining 2.1% (4.0)% (27.7)% (85.4)% (87.9)% (89.1)%
(47.5)%
Other Business 1.2% (2.8)% (27.5)% (87.5)% (94.0)% (92.1)%
(50.4)%
To Go sales for
To Go Sales per Restaurant
WE 3/1 WE 3/8 WE 3/15 WE 3/22 WE 3/29 WE 4/5
Olive Garden$16,191 $15,500 $14,942 $20,549 $34,524 $39,133
LongHorn Steakhouse $6,517 $6,406 $6,210 $9,153 $17,361 $19,858
Term Loan
Given continued economic uncertainty arising from COVID-19, the Company announced today that it has entered into a
Cash Utilization and Liquidity Update
Based on the performance through
About Darden
Darden is a restaurant company featuring a portfolio of differentiated brands that include Olive Garden,
Information About Forward-Looking Statements
Forward-looking statements in this communication regarding our expected earnings performance and all other statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation statements concerning our future economic performance, are made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such statements are first made, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after such date. We wish to caution investors not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ from those anticipated in the statements. The most significant of these uncertainties are described in Darden's Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K reports. These risks and uncertainties include the impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on our business and the response of governments and of our company to the outbreak, technology failures including failure to maintain a secure cyber network, food safety and food-borne illness concerns, the inability to hire, train, reward and retain restaurant team members, a failure to develop and recruit effective leaders, risks relating to public policy changes and federal, state and local regulation of our business, litigation, unfavorable publicity, an inability or failure to manage the accelerated impact of social media, the inability to cancel long-term, non-cancelable leases, labor and insurance costs, failure to execute a business continuity plan following a disaster, health concerns including food-related pandemics or virus outbreaks, intense competition, changing consumer preferences, failure to drive profitable sales growth, a lack of availability of suitable locations for new restaurants, higher-than-anticipated costs to open, close, relocate or remodel restaurants, a failure to execute innovative marketing tactics, a failure to address cost pressures, shortages or interruptions in the delivery of food and other products and services, adverse weather conditions and natural disasters, volatility in the market value of derivatives, economic factors specific to the restaurant industry and general macroeconomic factors including unemployment, energy prices and interest rates, disruptions in the financial and credit markets, risks of doing business with franchisees and licensees, risks of doing business with business partners and vendors in foreign markets, failure to protect our intellectual property, impairment in the carrying value of our goodwill or other intangible assets, changes in tax laws or treaties, failure of our internal controls over financial reporting and other factors and uncertainties discussed from time to time in reports filed by Darden with the
SOURCE
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