Darden Restaurants Case Study

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Policy and Strategy 20 November 2014 Darden Restaurants: ----------- In today’s business environment there is no such thing as complete competitive advantage. Everyday companies are fighting their competition to gain new market share. That is the case for Darden Restaurants, Incorporated who has recently been underperforming to their standards of success. Darden is one the top dogs in the restaurant industry in the nation with brands name restaurants Olive Garden and LongHorns Steakhouse. They did not gain this success over night. So to see how they got to their current position in the market I will provide a detailed company history along with facts about each of their current brands. From there I will discuss their current financial position relative to two of their main competitors. Then to conclude, I will provide my own insight into what I believe would be the optimal strategy for Darden in terms of value creation. “To nourish and delight everyone we serve”, that is the core purpose of Darden Restaurants (Darden-Our Culture). Darden Restaurants, Incorporated is the largest full service restaurant company in the world (Darden 10-K 1). They currently operate in over one thousand five hundred subsidiaries in both the United States and Canada in which they serve over four hundred and thirty nine million meals a year. In the United Stated alone, as of May 25th, 2014 they have in operation eight hundred and thirty one Olive Gardens, four hundred and sixty four LongHorn Steakhouses, fifty-four Capital Grilles, fifty-two Yard Houses, thirty-eight Season 52s, thirty-seven Bahama Breezes, and twelve Eddie V’s Prime seafood restaurants (Darden 10-K 1). From these diverse offerings Darden has gained a reputation in the restaurant industry, which has allowed them to produce relative stable growth in their nineteen-year history as a public company. This growth can be

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