Red Lobster 2010 Annual Report Download - page 7

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OUR BRAND-BUILDING EFFECTIVENESS
We are very good brand builders today. As our world and our
industry continue to change, we must become even better
brand builders tomorrow. That means change. An example
may help. For a brand to realize its full potential, not only does
it have to maintain relevance for current guests and current
dining occasions, it must become relevant for new guests and
new occasions. Capturing these kinds of new opportunities
takes considerable work today, and we believe our Company
has not been doing enough of that work. The challenge has
been that too often the daily and quarterly promotional and
operational intensity of our business crowds out focus on
important new brand- and sales-building opportunities that
have long lead times. To provide dedicated time and attention
for these opportunities, we have embarked upon a compre-
hensive redesign of our Marketing organization. The initial
phase, which began in fiscal 2010, includes the creation of a
Chief Marketing Officer position at the enterprise level, and
more changes will follow in fiscal 2011. With the increasing
pace of change among consumers and the increasing
competitive intensity of our industry, we recognize further
changes in our approach to enhance brand-building effective-
ness will be essential in the years ahead.
OUR BRAND SUPPORT PLATFORM
With scale and financial and professional resources that are
unmatched elsewhere in the full-service restaurant industry,
Darden consistently invests in great people and innovative
systems in critical support areas. These areas include our
supply chain, where our investments provide global presence
and market contacts that help us purchase on a competitively
cost-advantaged basis and stay ahead of market price
uctuations.฀They฀also฀include฀talent฀management,฀where฀
our investments help us build brands and sustain a strong
culture. And they include information technology, where we
invest to develop and continuously enhance cost-effective
in-restaurant labor and food cost management systems
and capabilities.
With this type of ongoing investment, our brand support
platform is considerably more effective and efficient than
it was 15 years ago and we are confident that 15 years
from now it will be even more robust. Several examples are
illustrative of the journey ahead. To achieve more consistent
and cost-effective restaurant manager training and development,
we launched an enterprise-level Learning Center of Excellence
in fiscal 2010. It combines and builds upon important brand
support work previously done separately within each brand.
We also made significant progress in fiscal 2010 further
automating our supply chain, reducing usage of energy, water
and cleaning supplies in our restaurants and centralizing
management of our restaurant facilities. Together, these
efforts฀resulted฀in฀$18฀million฀of฀cost฀savings฀in฀scal฀2010,฀
and฀we฀expect฀them฀to฀save฀$65฀million฀to฀$75฀million฀a฀year฀
when fully implemented. Similar changes in how we operate
have been crucial to our past success; they will be just as
important in the future.
Conclusion
We operate in a vibrant and dynamic industry. The challenge
is determining where to change and where to stay the course.
We have had tremendous success over the 15 years since
the spin-off from General Mills. As we look forward, we are
confident we will continue to strike the right balance between
continuity and change, enabling continued progress in building
a great company, now and for generations. In short, we think
Darden’s best is yet to come.
Thank you for being a shareholder and placing your
trust in us.
Clarence Otis, Jr. Andrew Madsen
Chairman and President and
Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer
1998
Diamond Club is created to recognize
and celebrate the achievements of top
restaurant leaders.
2003
Seasons 52 debuts on Sand Lake Road
in Orlando.
2007
Darden adds to the diversity of its brand portfolio
with the acquisition of RARE Hospitality and
its two brands: LongHorn Steakhouse and
The Capital Grille.
2009
Darden moves into its new, state-of-the-art, LEED
Gold-certified Restaurant Support Center campus
in Orlando. The new campus brings all RSC
personnel under one roof for the first time, allow-
ing for a more collaborative work environment.
DARDEN RESTAURANTS, INC. | 2010 ANNUAL REPORT 5