Olive Garden Summary

Company Introduction:

Olive Garden is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. The first Olive Garden was opened in 1983 and as of today Olive Garden has more than 800 locations worldwide, each aiming to provide an authentic Italian experience to customers across the globe (Myers, 2015).  The chain is a subsidiary of Darden Restaurants Inc. headquartered in Orlando, Florida, which also owns Long Horn Steak House, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze and Capital Grill.  Darden Restaurants Inc. employs about 150,000 team members who serve more than 320 million meals on an annual basis (Darden Inc, 2017).  Olive Garden has a wide range of entree options with most dinner menu items ranging from $10 to $20 and most lunch menu prices ranging from $7 to $17.00 (Darden Annual Report, 2013).  Olive Garden targets dining experiences for family groups, casual celebrations, and other casual dine-in occasions.

The Darden vision and mission is to provide a unique dining experience to every guest as well as aim to be the best company in casual dining, now and for generations (Darden Inc, 2017).  The Olive Garden dine in standard includes serving fresh, simple, delicious Italian food, complimented by a glass of wine, all served in a comfortable home like Italian setting.  Olive Garden in particular aims to welcome customers to their family with their slogan, “We’re all family here!” and their motto “100% Guest Delight! Hospitaliano!” (Darden Inc, 2017).  The company principles include honesty, communication, mutual respect, and strong teamwork (Darden Annual Report, 2013).  Olive Garden prides itself on customer service, which is achieved through comprehensive standards in selection, training, and job performance in order to create an ideal dining experience (Darden Inc, 2017).  

Industry Trends:

Olive Garden struggles to remain relevant in the niche casual dining market as trends often draw business away from casual dining.  The restaurant industry is constantly under pressure and stress to adapt to changing consumer preferences and threats from new competitors. Olive Garden competes with not only other regional chains and locally owned restaurants but also faces competition from the supermarket industry, which offers convenient, prepared meals for consumers (Darden Annual Report, 2013).  The fast casual dining industry also poses a threat as their meal options are improving and entice consumers to choose less expensive alternatives to Olive Garden (Chen, 2013).

  In order to address the competition and stay relevant in the marketplace Olive Garden has to consider a multitude of factors including their effectiveness of advertising and marketing in specific regional and local economic conditions, demographic trends, and the type of the number of competing restaurants, as well as changes in consumer tastes (Darden Annual Report, 2013).  Olive Garden restaurants have to remain updated with remodeling the restaurants and providing an aesthetically pleasing environment for diners.  Olive Garden’s future plans include offering promotions such as a new limited time offer which allows guests to order unlimited servings of their favorite Olive Garden menu items, including chicken parmesan and lasagna, as well as incentives for loyal customers (Darden Inc, 2017) (Horovitz, 2014).  Darden also aims to address competition internally by diversifying the company’s portfolio.  Darden recently has acquired Cheddar Scratch Kitchen, another leader in casual dining (Kalicak, 2017).  Olive Garden also hopes to improve employee benefits through wellness programs, which may aid in lowering staff turnover (Darden Financial Report, 2013).