Olive Garden On the Rebound
A little more than a year ago, the criticism of Olive Garden was coming as fast and steady as the all-you-can-eat breadsticks at its restaurants. Amid a long stretch of sluggish or declining sales at the casual Italian chain, an activist investor, Starboard Value, put together a nearly 300-page report that outlined everything it believed was ailing Olive Garden and its parent company, Darden Restaurants: It wasn’t cooking its pasta in...
A Year Later, Red Lobster Says Its Independence Paying Dividends
Orlando, Fla. — When Red Lobster’s menu team flew to a seafood show in Boston this spring, fishermen were talking about big catches of sockeye salmon and bairdi crab coming from Alaska. This month, Red Lobster rolled out its Crabfest menu featuring salmon and crab, which company leaders say shows how far the Orlando-based seafood chain has come in the year since it was sold by Darden Restaurants. “In the past we just weren’t able to...
