DRI Reports Q4

Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI ) held its fourth-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday. Below is the complete transcript from the call. This transcript is brought to you APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit for a consultation.

6% and the addition of 43 net new restaurants. 5% same restaurant sales growth. Olive Garden's lighter portions menu and Longhorn's viral social media campaign contributed to these results. 5% same restaurant sales growth.

Additionally, Darden is expanding internationally with new franchise locations in countries like Spain, India, and Canada. Darden highlighted its strategic advantages, including a strong supply chain and technology infrastructure, allowing cost efficiencies and operational excellence across its portfolio. 64. Full Transcript OPERATOR Greetings and welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2026 fourth quarter earnings call.

Your lines have been placed in the listen-only mode until the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star one on your touchtone phone. This conference is being recorded, and if you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I will now turn the call over to Ms.

Corne Aquila. Thank you. You may begin. Corne Aquila Thank you, Kevin.

Good morning and thank you for participating on today's call. Joining me are Rick Cardenas, Darden's President and CEO, and Raj Vennam, CFO. As a reminder, comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections.

Those risks are described in the company's press release, which was distributed this morning, and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A supplemental materials presentation containing information shared on today's call is available on the Financials tab in the Investors section of our website. Today's discussion includes certain non-GAAP measurements, and reconciliations of these measurements are included in the presentation. Looking ahead, we plan to release fiscal 2027 first quarter earnings on Thursday, September 24th, before the market opens, followed by a conference call.

During today's call, all references to industry results refer to the Black Box Intelligence Casual Dining Benchmark Exclusive. Including Darden, Black Box Intelligence updated its benchmarks in early May following changes to the underlying brand set. This restatement had an outsized impact on the casual dining benchmarks. The change moved the average benchmarks up by 150 basis points for same restaurant sales and 25 basis points for same restaurant guest counts.

8% during our fourth quarter. This morning we will share some brief remarks on the quarter and full year, as well as the details of our financial results, discuss the power of Darden's portfolio, and share our fiscal 2027 financial outlook. Now I will turn the call over to Rick. Rick Cardenas (President and CEO) Thank you, Courtney.

Good morning, everyone. The fourth quarter was a strong finish to an excellent year, one in which we significantly outperformed the industry. Our restaurant teams continued to execute at a high level, and their commitment to operational excellence helped each of our brands deliver positive same restaurant sales for the quarter. We know guests choose the brands they trust for key occasions.

Several of our brands enjoyed record performance on Mother's Day, including the highest ever traffic day at Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, and our guest satisfaction results continued to be at or near all-time highs. It was an especially strong year for our three largest brands, Olive Garden, Longhorn, and Yardhouse. Olive Garden met our heightened expectations for the year, delivering 4% same restaurant sales growth, which is above the high end of Darden's long-term framework. Longhorn delivered same restaurant sales growth of over 7% for the year, reflecting their focus on food quality and execution.

They ended the year by conducting their ninth annual SteakMaster series. Congratulations to Jesse Montalva from the Longhorn Steakhouse in Riverview, Florida, who claimed the championship trophy. 6%. The performance of Olive Garden, Longhorn, and Yardhouse this year is extremely impressive, marking the fifth consecutive year that all three brands have delivered positive same restaurant sales.

With our focus on growing our brands, we opened 71 new restaurants during the fiscal year, six more than initially planned at the beginning of the year, and our development team has built a strong pipeline of sites to support new restaurant growth. Raj will share more details about our growth plans in his remarks. Additionally, our newest international franchising partners in Spain and India opened their first locations during the year, and our new partner