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Text: Joining me on the call today are Gene Lee, Darden's Chairman and CEO; Rick Cardinas, President and COO; and Raj Vennam, CFO.
Any reference to pre-COVID when discussing second quarter performance is a comparison to the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
This is because last year's results are not meaningful due to the pandemic's impact on the business and the limited capacity environment that we operated in during the second quarter quarter of fiscal '21.
We plan to release fiscal 2022 third quarter earnings on Thursday, March 24 before the market opens followed by a conference call.
Gene will share some brief remarks, Rick will give an update on our operating performance and Raj will provide more detail on our financial results and an update to our fiscal 2022 financial outlook.
Sales trends remained strong throughout the quarter, as all our brands stayed laser focused on creating memorable guest experiences.
Despite the toughest inflationary environment we've seen in years, we achieved strong profitable sales growth.
Our ongoing success navigating the pandemic is a testament to the power of our strategy, driven by our back to basics operating philosophy and the strength of our four competitive advantages.
Our disciplined commitment to our strategies allow us to manage this environment well, while returning significant cash to our shareholders.
People and product will continue to be our focus and Rick will share more details about that in a minute.
Additionally, our teams have done a great job managing inflation effectively and Raj will provide more color on that during his remarks.
Holidays are the busiest time of year for our restaurant teams as they delight our guest and help create lasting holiday memories.
This time of year is also a great reminder that being of service is at the heart of our business, which is why we're committed to serving our guests, our team members and our communities.
One of the ways we serve our communities is by helping fight hunger, this fiscal year, through our foundation, Darden provided $2.5 million to help our partners at Feeding America add refrigerated trucks for 15 food banks to support mobile pantry programs and distribution in communities facing high rates of food insecurity.
We are uniquely positioned to help and by leveraging our scale and relationships with partners like Penske Truck Leasing and Lineage Logistics, we're proud to do our part to help get food into the hands of people who need it.
Finally, earlier today, we announced that effective May 30th, Rick will succeed me as Chief Executive Officer and will join Darden's Board of Directors.
This is the right time for this transition and I look forward to continuing to serve as Darden's Chairman.
Our company is in a clear position of strength and this is also the right time for me and my family, I'm excited for Rick, who has been a tremendous partner over the last seven years and is one of the best strategic thinkers I've worked alongside.
Our brands have tremendous opportunity ahead of them and Rick is the perfect person to lead Darden into the next chapter.
It is an honor to be appointed Darden's next Chief Executive Officer and I'm grateful to Gene and the Board for their confidence in me.
It is humbling to lead 170,000 outstanding team members, who nourish and delight everyone we serve.
I was incredibly fortunate to work with each of Darden's CEOs.
So, I have a strong appreciation for the legacy of leadership I'm inheriting.
By upholding our commitments to operational excellence and maximizing the power of the Darden platform, we will continue to execute our strategy to drive growth and shareholder value.
Turning to the quarter.
Our restaurants continue to execute at a high level.
Our focus on simplifying operations to drive execution remains our top priority, which is why we once again paused any new initiatives during the quarter in order to eliminate distractions and allow our operators to focus on running great shifts.
This pause also ensures they can zero-in on people and product as we navigate through the current staffing and supply chain challenges.
From a people perspective, we feel good about the progress we've made on the staffing front.
Across our brands manager staffing levels are above historical norms and team member staffing levels continue to improve.
Our new hiring system has made it easier to source talent, giving our management teams more time to focus on successfully onboarding and training new team members.
We also continue to invest in our team members further strengthening our industry leading employment proposition.
Earlier this year, we committed to increasing the minimum hourly earnings for our restaurant team members to $12, which includes income earned through gratuities by January 2023.
However, given the strength of our performance, we are accelerating that timing to January 2022.
This primarily impacts entry level roles, such as hosts, busters [Phonetic] and dishwashers.
And with this change, we expect our restaurant team members will earn on average approximately $20 per hour.
Our people are the key to our performance.
We work hard to be the employer of choice in our industry and we're proud that our retention rates for managers and team members are both in the top quartile.
And we will continue to invest in them to retain and attract the best talent in the industry.
On the product side, our supply chain team continues to do a great job making sure our restaurants have the products they need to serve our guests.
Our inventory levels are strong and the team's ability to meet the needs of the business can be seen in the fact that we shipped more cases in the last two quarters than at any time during Darden's history.
The ability to maintain supply continuity for our restaurants minimizes distractions and allows our operators to focus on executing at the highest level, whether our guests or in our dining rooms or enjoying the convenience of to-go.
During the quarter to-go sales continued to benefit from the strength of our digital platform.
This platform not only makes it easier for our teams to execute, it makes it more convenient for our guests to visit, order, pay and pick up.
Off-premise sales accounted for 28% of total sales at Olive Garden and 15% of total sales at LongHorn Steakhouse.
Digital transactions accounted for 60% of all off-premise sales during this quarter and 11% of Darden's total sales.
Finally, we successfully opened 12 new restaurants during the quarter, including a flagship Yard House in Time Square with minimal staffing challenges.
The time to build a new restaurant is longer today than it has been historically and we are also beginning to see longer lead times for kitchen equipment and technology hardware.
Regardless, we remain on track to open approximately 35 to 40 new restaurants this fiscal year.
I also want to recognize our team members in our restaurants and our support center for your tireless efforts in creating exceptional experiences for our guests.
I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.
Total sales for the second quarter were $2.3 billion, 37% higher than last year, driven by 34.4% same restaurant sales growth and the addition of 34 net new restaurants.
Average weekly sales grew by more than 7% compared to pre-COVID.
Diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations were $1.48.
Total EBITDA was $335 million, resulting in EBITDA margin of 14.7%.
The significant business model improvements we made over the past year and half combined with strong sales resulted in margin growth of 270 basis points compared to pre-COVID.
We expect this to be the highest quarterly EBITDA margin growth this fiscal year as this quarter has the most opportunity given its low seasonality.
We continue to return significant cash to shareholders paying $143 million in dividends and repurchasing $266 million in shares, totaling over $400 million of cash returned to investors in the quarter.
And while we're happy with our performance, cost pressures continue to exceed our expectations on both commodities and labor with total inflations of 6% this quarter.
Our teams continue to demonstrate agility in managing through this environment.
This quarter we implemented several mitigating actions to preserve the strength of our business model, while balancing the impact of our guests and team members.
One of these actions was taking additional pricing.
For the second quarter, total pricing was 2% and we expect back half pricing to approach 4%, resulting in total pricing of just under 3% for the full fiscal year.
We continue to execute our strategy of pricing significantly below our overall inflation to strengthen our value leadership position by leveraging our scale.
This level of pricing covers most of what we consider to be the structural and long lasting impacts of the current inflationary environment and absorbing what we consider to be more short-term fluctuations, while providing future flexibility should there be a need.
For the rest of the fiscal year, we expect commodity and labor inflation to peak in our third quarter and then start to slow down as we enter the fourth quarter and lap commodities inflation of 4.3% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Now turning to our P&L and segment performance for the second quarter.
We're comparing against pre-COVID results in the second quarter of 2020 which we believe are more comparable to normal business operations and with how we've been framing our margin expansion opportunity.
For the second quarter, food and beverage expenses were 220 basis points higher, driven by elevated commodity inflation of 9%, as well as investments in food quality, portion size and pricing significantly below inflation.
Restaurant labor was 90 basis points favorable, driven by sales leverage and efficiencies gained from operational simplifications and was partially offset by elevated wage pressures.
Hourly wage inflation during the quarter was almost 9%.
Restaurant expenses were 130 basis points lower due to sales leverage, which more than offset higher utilities costs.
Marketing spend was $44 million lower, resulting in 230 basis points of favorability.
As a result, restaurant level EBITDA margin for Darden was 18.8%, 230 basis points better than pre-COVID levels.
G&A expense was 40 basis points lower, driven by savings from the corporate restructuring in fiscal 2021, a decrease in mark-to-market expense and sales leverage.
Turning to our segment performance.
Second quarter sales at Olive Garden increased 5% versus pre-COVID, strong performance, especially as we were wrapping against nine weeks of never-ending possible.
This sales growth combined with the business model improvements at Olive Garden helped drive a segment profit margin increase of 320 basis points even while offsetting elevated inflation.
LongHorn continued its strong sales growth with an increase of 22% versus pre-COVID.
However, inflationary pressures including double digits for commodities were at their highest level in the second quarter, resulting in reduction of segment profit margin by 80 basis points.
Sales at our Fine Dining segment increased 22% versus pre-COVID as this segment continues to see a strong rebound in performance.
Segment profit margin grew by 140 basis points, driven by strong sales leverage and operational efficiencies, which more than offset double-digit commodities inflation.
Our other segment grew sales by 7% versus pre-COVID and segment profit margin by 250 basis points.
This segment continues to perform well and we're pleased to see the business model transformation persist.
Finally, turning to our financial outlook for fiscal 2022, we updated our outlook for the full year to reflect our performance year-to-date and our expected performance for the remainder of the year.
We now expect total sales of $9.55 billion to $9.7 billion, representing growth of 9% to 11% from pre-COVID levels, same restaurant sales growth of 29% to 31% and 35 to 40 new restaurants.
Capital spending of approximately $425 million, total inflation of approximately 5.5% with commodities inflation between 7% and 8%, total restaurant labor inflation between 6% and 6.5% which includes hourly wage inflation approaching 9%.
EBITDA of $1.55 billion to $1.6 billion and annual effective tax rate of approximately 14% and approximately 130 million diluted average shares outstanding for the year.
All resulting in diluted net earnings per share between $7.35 and $7.60.
This outlook implies EBITDA margin growth versus pre-COVID similar to our previous outlook of 200 to 250 basis points with flow-through from pricing and higher sales helping offset elevated inflation.

user
darden restaurants q2 earnings per share $1.48 from continuing operations.
q2 earnings per share $1.48 from continuing operations .
sees 2022 total sales of approximately $9.55 to $9.70 billion.
sees 2022 same-restaurant sales versus.
fiscal 2021 of 29% to 31%.
sees 2022 diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations of $7.35 to $7.60.
qtrly blended same-restaurant sales increase of 34.4%.

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