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Darden Eating places is seeking to open extra Olive Backyard and LongHorn Steakhouse eating places.
CFO Rajesh Vennam stated throughout Darden’s fourth-quarter earnings name that the mother or father firm is “in all probability going to have 40 to 45 openings” between the 2 chains “subsequent yr.”
Darden operated over 930 Olive Backyard places as of late Might, when its fiscal 2025 yr ended. In the meantime, the restaurant rely of company-owned LongHorn Steakhouses stood at over 590.
An Olive Backyard restaurant in Fremont, California, on Sept. 14, 2023. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg through / Getty Pictures)
Ruth’s Chris, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard Home, The Capital Grille, Chuy’s, Seasons 52 and Eddie V’s are among the many different chains at the moment inside Darden’s portfolio of manufacturers.
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“Yard Home may be within the mid-single digits, after which you may have all the opposite manufacturers contributing in all probability one other 15 or so,” Vennam went on to say. “However as we glance into the long run, we count on the opposite manufacturers to grow to be a much bigger a part of the combo.”
The CFO instructed analysts and traders that Darden believes there was nonetheless “big alternative” for LongHorn to open 25 to 30 places a yr and Olive Backyard to be “within the 20-ish vary for the foreseeable future.”
A LongHorn Steakhouse restaurant on June 22, 2023, in Skokie, Illinois. (Scott Olson / Getty Pictures)
“However then we’re additionally, as I stated, the opposite manufacturers will begin to contribute much more” to Darden’s model combine “as we transfer into the following few years,” he stated.
His feedback got here in response to an analyst query in regards to the 60-65 whole new eating places that Darden forecasted it will launch in fiscal 2026 and when unit development was anticipated to extend.
“We’re truly constructing the pipeline,” Vennam stated. “We count on to be within the 3-plus [percent] vary over the following 5 years.”
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Darden has over 2,100 company-owned eating places throughout all its manufacturers on the finish of fiscal 2025.
Olive Backyard and LongHorn Steakhouse have been round because the early Eighties, with Darden buying the latter model in 2007. LongHorn Steakhouse ranked No. 2 for buyer satisfaction amongst full-serve chains within the American Buyer Satisfaction Index Restaurant and Meals Supply Examine launched earlier this month, whereas the Italian-themed chain was shut behind it with a rating of 81.
Olive Backyard had $5.2 billion in gross sales for fiscal 2025, marking a 2.8% improve from the prior yr. Longhorn’s annual gross sales rose by 7.8% to $3.03 billion.
An Olive Backyard on June 20, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell / Getty Pictures)
General, Darden generated practically $12.08 billion in gross sales throughout fiscal 2025 with internet earnings of $1.05 billion. For fiscal 2026, it forecast gross sales will develop 7-8%.
In the course of the earnings name, the corporate additionally revealed it was “strategic options” for its 28-location Bahama Breeze chain.
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“We’ve got made the troublesome choice that these remaining places and the Bahama Breeze model will not be a strategic precedence for us. We additionally consider that this model and these eating places have the potential to profit from a brand new proprietor,” CEO Ricardo Cardenas stated. “Consequently, we might be contemplating strategic options for Bahama Breeze, together with a possible sale of the model or changing eating places to different Darden manufacturers.”