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Sales at Darden Restaurants Total $5 Billion for Fiscal 2004
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Darden Restaurants Inc. reports diluted net earnings per share of $1.36 on net earnings of $231.5 million for the fiscal year ended May 30. Earnings per share for the fourth quarter were 32 cents on net earnings of $53.7 million.Darden operates several Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants in the Mahoning Valley region and recently opened a Smokey Bones restaurant in Boardman.Full-year sales increased 7.5% to $5 billion. In the fourth quarter, sales increased 10.7% to $1.4 billion, driven primarily by new restaurant growth at Olive Garden and Smokey Bones and the additional operating week in the quarter."This was a good quarter for Darden Restaurants," said Joe Lee, chairman and chief executive officer. "We achieved solid fourth quarter diluted net earnings per share as a result of exceptional performance once again at Olive Garden and continued improvement at Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones. Strong leadership is the key to propelling future growth for Darden, and we will benefit from recent steps to fill important leadership positions." Olive Garden's fourth quarter sales of $593.5 million were 15.7% above prior year, driven primarily by a same-restaurant sales increase of 5%, revenue from 19 net new restaurants opened during fiscal 2004 and sales from the additional operating week. This is the 39th consecutive quarter of comparable-restaurant sales growth for Olive Garden. Olive Garden had record total sales for the fiscal year of $2.2 billion, up 11.1% from last year, and its average annual sales per restaurant were $4.1 million (52 week base).Red Lobster's fourth quarter sales of $652.8 million were 1.3% above prior year, driven by seven net new restaurants opened during fiscal 2004 and sales from the additional operating week partially offset by a 6.4% decrease in same-restaurant sales. Total sales for the fiscal year were $2.4 billion, up 0.1% from last year, and its average annual sales per restaurant were $3.6 million. Same-restaurant sales for the fiscal year were down 3.5%."We are encouraged that our team was able to grow profits in the fourth quarter, despite considerable challenges," said Kim Lopdrup, president of Red Lobster. "Importantly, we also increased our guest satisfaction scores significantly, and our sales trend since April has improved after we introduced our new transitional advertising campaign." Bahama Breeze opened its new, reduced-investment prototype building in Pittsburgh during the fourth quarter. Bahama Breeze also closed six restaurants during the quarter, reducing the total number in operation to 32 restaurants. Total sales were $176.3 million in fiscal 2004 and average annual sales per restaurant (excluding the six closed restaurants) were $5.2 million.Smokey Bones opened 10 restaurants during the fourth quarter and had 69 restaurants in operation at the end of the fiscal year. Since the end of the quarter, Smokey Bones has opened one restaurant located in Bowie, Md. Total sales were $174.3 million in fiscal 2004 and average annual sales per restaurant were $3.2 million. The company plans to open 30 to 40 restaurants during fiscal 2005.Darden expects combined same-restaurant sales growth in fiscal 2005 of between 1% and 3% for Red Lobster and Olive Garden. Darden also expects to open at least 50 to 60 new restaurants in fiscal 2005. "We have strong, consumer driven businesses and we will continue to do what is necessary to drive their growth," Lee said. "Given our near term focus to strengthen the performance at Red Lobster and Bahama Breeze, the continued roll-out of Smokey Bones as well as some uncertainty in economic conditions and the extra operating week in fiscal 2004, we believe diluted net earnings per share growth in the range of 8% to 12% is appropriate for fiscal 2005. Over the long term, we believe we can achieve annual diluted earnings per share growth in the double-digit range."Darden Restaurants Inc. owns and operates more than 1,300 Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, Smokey Bones and Seasons 52 restaurants with annual sales of $5 billion.Visit Darden Restaurants Inc.: www.darden.com"