Olive Garden Parent Company Profits Drop

[Stuart G]

Source: USA Today

The parent of Olive Garden and Red Lobster is replacing its president after reporting a sharp drop in profits over its summer quarter.

Darden Restaurants said it earned $70.2 million, or 53 cents per share, for the three months ended Aug. 25. That's compared with $110.8 million, or 85 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Analysts expected a profit of 70 cents per share.

Sales rose to $2.16 billion, helped by the opening of new locations. That was short of the $2.19 billion Wall Street expected, according to FactSet.

The company said Drew Madsen, 57, will retire and be succeeded by the president of its specialty restaurant group, Gene Lee. The appointment is effective immediately.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/20/olive-garden-darden-restaurants/2841815/

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Isn't this the company that publicly said it was against ..Obamacare...and would reduce its staff hours so it doesn't have to comply?
..something like that?...

Do you think people have decided not to go there?..I don't, won't...

Here is a link from last December that discusses this towards the end of the story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/darden-restaurants-profit_n_2337250.html


Darden seems to say, that couldn't hurt our sales..

Another link from last December...from the Washington Post is more specific on this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/06/red-lobsters-obamacare-fail-why-ditching-health-benefits-is-really-hard/

[gopiscrap]

1. Good...I won't go there!

[BP2]

3. and ...

... Starbucks
and Wal-Mart
and Papa John's
and McDonald's
and Whole Foods
and Cheesecake Factory
and Carl's Jr/Hardee's
and Red Lobster
and Applebee's
and ...

[gopiscrap]

5. yes I do my best to avoid these places

[gopiscrap]

6. I have never been in a

Whole Foods, Cheesecake, Carl's or Wal-Mart. It has been years since I have patronized Papa John's, Red Lobster or Applebee's my one sin is McDonald's I have a grand child who loves the big toy. I do tell him that McDonald's does stuff to fuck people over, but he's still too little to understand.

[levp]

12. Starbucks?

I get the other places you mentioned, and I haven't been in those for years (with the exception of McDonald's franchises in highway service areas, and even that on a rare occasion).

It seems to me, however, that Starbucks is one of the better places to work at, no?

[Hekate]

26. Starbucks has been known as an excellent employer, yet some here keep throwing their name in the pot

... with businesses like Wal-Mart.

Unless there has been some massive corporate policy change that I don't know about, you know, instituting peonage, I wish those responsible would either provide proof or stop it.

DH urged our feckless ex-son-in-law to apply for part-time work at a short list of places that provided benefits and better-than-average wages. Costco and Starbucks were at the top of the list, and this was only a few years ago.

[KG]

2. it's all the breast feeding, esp the times square location...

[KamaAina]

10. And the pit bulls eating all the unlimited breadsticks

cuts pretty deep into their profit margin.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

4. It is.They did.

Isn't this the company that publicly said it was against ..Obamacare...and would reduce its staff hours so it doesn't have to comply?
..something like that?...

Do you think people have decided not to go there?..I don't, won't...

I already didn't go to those places.They increased the likelihood that I'll continue to not go there.I hope their losses are attributable to their policies and that they understand that dynamic.

[Stuart G]

11. None of the stories about today's profits refer to anything about this.

Eight months ago, especially the last article from the Washington Post, we saw information that significantly identifies Darden's attempt to be the first one to cut back hours to avoid aspects of the Affordable Care Act...Darden doesn't not admit nothing on this anywhere that I read..

[Divine Discontent]

7. last time I went there was 4 years ago

and after the waitress, who I called over, let the lady 10 ft away change her baby's diaper at the dining table, I never went back.

[tofuandbeer]

8. Gross!

[Divine Discontent]

9. my immediate sentiments exactly

I couldn't believe she just looked, stood still for a few seconds, got scared and walked away. Red Pooper is what I call it now.

[primavera]

20. Perhaps the infant ate some of the food

What passes for food at Olive Garden is enough to give anybody an immediate attack of diarrhea.

[onehandle]

13. I'd choose Italian food over Olive Garden anytime. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

14. Only way to get 'em is to hit 'em in the wallet. nt

[kimbutgar]

15. My sister for some reason likes Red Lobster. I told her about how they are against the ACA

and she said she will no longer go there.

All the restaurants mentioned are gross food. The few times I have been to Olive Garden I spent time later in the bathroom getting sick. Red Lobster is fake fish. Papa John's is cardboard pizza. Yuck just thinking of these restaurants make me sick.

Darden is clueless that people have been boycotting them for their political beliefs.

[jmowreader]

16. They took the "MBA solution" to their problem

A few days ago I was looking around online and found this "Online Test" to help decide what Goldman, Sachs job was best suited to you. Okay, what the hell. One of the questions was something like "you have been charged with turning around a struggling division of a manufacturing company. Which of these three things would you be more likely to do - cut operating expenses to increase efficiency, increase marketing and promotion to attract new customers, or recruit new executives?" (Sorry, I seem to be struggling with a mild case of CRS today.) These are the things MBAs do to fix problems; the problem with their solutions is, the real answer is "research, develop and market things people like better than what we're selling them now."

The real problem isn't that We The People are staging a backlash against their stance on Obamacare, it's that We The People are bored with overpriced, bland food.

[HeiressofBickworth]

17. In addition to their questionable employee policies,

I avoid both restaurants because of the food. Olive Garden is Italian and that's the one cuisine that I dislike. Red Lobster is heavy on seafood which can be of questionable authenticity (passing talapia off for a more expensive fish) or from contaminated areas (like the Gulf, Thailand, or other SE Asian areas. It seems a shame that restaurants in the Pacific Northwest can't serve local catch. However, the fact is that a huge corporation like Darden is willing to risk the health of its customers and obtain cheap fish in mass quantities rather than deal with local providers. It's all about the money -- as I've said many times before. We as a nation are put at risk every day in order to satisfy the bottom line of a financial statement. Shame on them.

[blkmusclmachine]

18. Good.

[JI7]

19. GOOD

[Omaha Steve]

21. In memory of Marie

K&R!

[Niceguy1]

22. our

Olive garden is pretty good...and they are almost always packed.

[llmart]

23. Our local Olive Garden......

had numerous articles in the paper about how lots of people got food poisoning at the restaurant and the county's health department was called in. The articles I read were gross about how Olive Garden's food is prepared. I have only eaten there one time about 30 years ago and don't consider it real Italian food anyway. And forget Red Lobster. That's even worse.

[Ruby the Liberal]

24. I dunno. Something about

being served food by people with no health insurance (or money for self-pay preventative care) may just have something to do with it?

[Justice]

25. They will not provide insurance to employees working <30 hrs a week

And they reduced people involuntarily. Just announced yesterday.