Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Q3 2023 Results Conference Call March 23, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Kevin Kalicak - IR

Rick Cardenas - President and CEO

Raj Vennam - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Chris Carril - RBC Capital Markets

Brian Harbour - Morgan Stanley

David Tarantino - Baird

Jeffrey Bernstein - Barclays

Josh Long - Stephens

Danilo Gargiulo - Bernstein

Dennis Geiger - UBS

Jeff Farmer - Gordon Haskett

Andrew Charles - TD Cowen

Jon Tower - Citi

John Ivankoe - JPMorgan

Chris O'Cull - Stifel

Katherine Griffin - Katherine Griffin

Andrew Strelzik - BMO

David Palmer - Evercore ISI

Lauren Silberman - Credit Suisse

Brian Bittner - Oppenheimer

Gregory Francfort - Guggenheim

Brian Vaccaro - Raymond James

John Parke - Wells Fargo

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2023 Third Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note today's 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

Thanks, Todd. 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 the 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 2023 fourth quarter earnings on Thursday, June 22nd, before the market opens followed by a conference call.

During today's call, any reference to pre-COVID when discussing third quarter performance is a comparison to the third quarter of fiscal 2020. Additionally, all references to industry results during today's call refer to Black Box Intelligence’s, casual dining benchmark, excluding Darden, specifically Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen.

During our third fiscal quarter, industry same-restaurant sales increased 7.2% and industry same-restaurant guest counts decreased 3%. This morning, Rick will share some brief remarks on the quarter and our focus moving forward, and Raj will provide more details on our financial results and an update to our fiscal 2023 financial outlook.