Darden Restaurants (DRI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning. Welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2023 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. Your lines have been placed on listen-only until the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, the conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Kevin Kalicak. Thank you, you may begin.

Kevin Kalicak

Thank you, Darryl. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating on today's call. Joining me today are Rick Cardenas, Darden's President and CEO; and Raj Vennam, CFO.

As a reminder, comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections.

Those risks are described in the company's press release which was distributed this morning and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are simultaneously broadcasting a presentation during this call which is posted in the Investor Relations section of our website at darden.com.

Today's discussion and presentation include certain non-GAAP measurements and reconciliations of these measurements are included in the presentation. Looking ahead, we plan to release fiscal 2024 first quarter earnings on Thursday, September 21, before the market opens, followed by a conference call.

During today's call, any reference to pre-COVID when discussing fourth quarter performance is a comparison to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. And any reference to annual pre-COVID performance is a comparison to the trailing 12 months ending February of fiscal 2020. Additionally, all references to industry results today refer to Black Box Intelligence's casual dining benchmark excluding Darden, specifically Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen.

During our fourth fiscal quarter, industry same-restaurant sales decreased 0.7% and industry same-restaurant guest counts decreased 7%. And during our full fiscal year 2023, industry same-restaurant sales increased 2.7% and industry same-restaurant guest counts decreased 5.5%. This morning, Rick will share some brief remarks recapping the fiscal year, Raj will provide details on our fourth quarter and full year financial results and share our fiscal 2024 financial outlook and then, Rick will close with some final comments.

Now I will turn the call over to Rick.

Rick Cardenas

Thank you, Kevin and good morning, everyone. We had a solid quarter to conclude what was a very strong year. Despite a tough environment, we significantly outperformed the industry benchmark for same-restaurant sales and traffic and met or exceeded the financial outlook we provided at the outset of the year.