Olive Garden is committed to its purpose of Hospitaliano! – providing 100 percent guest delight through the genuine Italian dining experience. This passion is continuing to advance Olive Garden’s leadership position in the highly competitive, full-service Italian segment of the casual dining industry. Here are some facts about this family of local restaurants:
BACKGROUND:
Founded in 1982, Olive Garden is owned by Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI), the largest casual dining restaurant company in the world.
Olive Garden is the leading restaurant in the Italian dining segment with 670 restaurants, more than 80,000 employees and $3.1 billion in annual sales.
GUEST EXPERIENCE:
Italians have a passion for sharing genuine hospitality with family and friends. So, at Olive Garden, “When you’re here, you’re family,” is more than a tag line. It is the brand promise to delight more than 3.3 million guests every week with fresh, simple delicious Italian food; award-winning wine and beverage choices; service in a comfortable home-like Italian setting; and the experience of being treated like family.
EMPLOYEE CULTURE:
Olive Garden attributes much of its success to its commitment to training and developing restaurant team members with initiatives, such as weeklong manager visits to Olive Garden’s Culinary Institute of Tuscany in Italy and more than 500,000 training hours invested in wine education.
AWARDS:
Olive Garden’s award-winning culinary, beverage and training teams have garnered national recognition for their innovation, program execution and industry leadership from top trade publications and food service organizations.
FINANCIALS:
The achievement of 57 consecutive quarters of same restaurant sales increases far out-paces the casual dining industry.
Sales of $3.1 billion in FY08.
Average annual sales of $4.9 million per restaurant.
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT:
Dave Pickens, President
Valerie Insignares, Executive Vice President of Operations
John Caron, Executive Vice President of Marketing
