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Text: Joining me on the call today are Gene Lee, Darden's Chairman and CEO; Rick Cardenas, President and COO; and Raj Vennam, CFO.
Any reference to the pre-COVID when discussing fourth quarter performance is a comparison to our fourth quarter of fiscal '19.
And anyone -- annual reference to pre-COVID is the trailing 12 months -- ending February of fiscal '20.
This is because last year's results are not meaningful due to the pandemic's impact on the business as dining rooms closed and we pivoted to go-only model during the fourth quarter of fiscal '20.
We plan to release fiscal '22 first quarter earnings on September 23 before the market opens followed by a conference call.
During our call a year ago, I talked about the resiliency of the full-service dining segment and the confidence we had in the industry's ability to bounce back from the impacts of the pandemic.
And we've begun to see demand come back at strong levels.
As we think about the industry, our consumer insights team has done a lot of good work to better understand the size of the full-service dining segment.
There are multiple sources of data that offers sales estimates for the restaurant industry and the size of the industry and the full service industry specifically varies considerably across these sources.
This year we are adopting Technomic as our data source, which we believe better reflects the sales contribution from independent operators, provides a broader view of the restaurant industry and aligns more closely with the census data.
Going forward, we will be referencing industry data provided by Technomic which sizes the casual dining and fine dining categories for fiscal 2020 at $189 billion and for fiscal 2019 at $222 billion.
Given the strong demand we're seeing in the financial health of the consumer, we believe the categories will return to that size or greater, it's quite having approximately 10% fewer units than before the onset of the pandemic.
Over the last 15 months, we have made numerous strategic investments.
At the restaurant level, we've invested in food quality and portion size that will help strengthen the long-term value perceptions for each brand.
We also made considerable investments in our team members to ensure our employment proposition remains a competitive advantage.
And we invest in technology, particularly within our To Go capabilities, I mean our guest growing need for convenience and desire for the off-premise experience.
Our business model has evolved and is much stronger today.
As we begin our new fiscal year, we will remain disciplined in our approach to growing sales.
More specifically, our focus is on driving profitable sales growth.
Given the business transformation work we have done and the demand we are seeing from the consumer, we are well positioned to thrive in this operating environment.
This was without a doubt the most challenging year in our company's history.
Our results this quarter are a combination of the business model transformation work that Gene referenced as well as a simplification efforts we implemented throughout the year.
Significant process in menu simplification at each brand has enabled us to drive high levels of execution and strengthen margins, further positioning our brands for long-term success.
As we began the quarter, our restaurant teams remain disciplined, while continuing to operate in a difficult and unpredictable environment.
This enabled us to deliver record setting results.
For example Olive Garden broke its all-time single day sales record on Mother's Day.
Additionally, both Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse achieved the highest quarterly segment profit in their history.
Even as capacity restrictions eased and we were able to utilize more of our dining rooms, off-premise sales remained strong during the quarter.
Off-premise sales accounted for 33% of total sales at Olive Garden, 19% at LongHorn and 16% at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen.
Guest demand for off-premise has been stickier than we originally thought, and this is driven by the focus of our restaurant teams and the investments we made to improve our digital platform throughout the year.
Technology enhancements to online ordering and the introduction of new capabilities such as To Go capacity management and Curbside I'm Here notification improved the experience for our guests, while making it easier for our operators to execute.
As a result, during the quarter, 64% of Olive Garden's To Go orders were placed online, and 14% of Darden's total sales were digital transactions.
Nearly half of our guest checks were settled digitally, either online on our tabletop tablets or via mobile pay.
The business model improvements we have made also reinforce our ability to open value creating new restaurants across all of our brands.
During the quarter, we opened 14 new restaurants and these restaurants are outperforming our expectations.
While, Raj will discuss specific new restaurant targets for fiscal '22, we are working to develop a pipeline of restaurants and future leaders that would put us at the higher end of our long-term framework of 2 %to 3% sales growth from new units as we enter fiscal 2023.
Finally, the strength of the Darden platform has helped our brands navigate near term external challenges.
The employment environment has been an issue for the industry.
However, the power of our employment proposition strengthened by the investments we have made in our people continue to pay off as we retain our best talent and recruit new team members to more fully staff our restaurants.
So, while there are staffing challenges in some areas, we are not experiencing systematic issues.
Additionally, the strength of our platform has helped us avoid significant supply chain interruptions.
Our supply chain team continues to leverage our scale to ensure our restaurant teams have the key products they need to serve our guests.
Notably, the few spot outages we have experienced are related to warehouse staffing and driver shortages, not product availability.
To wrap up, I also want to recognize our outstanding team members.
During my restaurant visits, I'm inspired by the positive attitude and flexibility you demonstrate every day.
Total sales for the fourth quarter were $2.3 billion, 79.5% higher than last year, driven by 90.4% same restaurant sales growth and the addition of 30 net new restaurants, partially offset by one less week of operations this year.
The improvements we made to our business model combined with fourth quarter sales accelerating faster than cost grows strong profitability, resulting in adjusted diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations of $2.03.
Our reported earnings were $0.76 higher due to a non-recurring tax benefit of $99.7 million.
This benefit primarily relates to our estimated federal net operating loss for fiscal year 2021, which we will carry back in the preceding five years.
Looking at our performance throughout the quarter, we saw same restaurant sales versus pre-COVID improving from negative 4.1% in March, positive 2.4% in May.
And same restaurant sales for the first three weeks of June were positive 2.5% compared to two years ago.
To Go sales for Olive Garden and LongHorn continue to be significantly higher than pre-COVID levels.
We have seen a gradual decline in weekly To Go sales, however that decline is being more than offset by an increasing dining sales.
Turning to the fourth quarter P&L, compared to pre-COVID results, food and beverage expenses were 90 basis points higher, driven by investments in both food quality and pricing below inflation.
For reference, food inflation in Q4 was 4.3% versus last year.
Restaurant labor was 190 basis points lower driven by hourly labor improvement of 320 basis points due to efficiencies gained from the operational simplification and was partially offset by continued wage pressures.
Marketing spend was $44 million lower, resulting in 200 basis points of favorability.
G&A expense was 30 basis points lower driven primarily by savings from the corporate restructuring earlier in the year.
As a result, we achieved record restaurant level EBITDA margin for Darden of 22.6%, 310 basis points above pre-COVID levels and record quarterly EBITDA of $412 million.
We had $5 million in impairments due to the write-off of multiple restaurant-related assets and our effective tax rate for the quarter was 12% excluding the impact of the non-recurring tax benefit I previously mentioned.
Looking at our segments.
We achieved record segment profit dollars and margins at Olive Garden, LongHorn, and the other business segment this quarter.
Fine dining improved segment profit margins versus pre-COVID despite sales declines.
These results were driven by reduced labor and marketing expenses as we continue to focus on simplified operations while also continuing to invest in food quality and pricing below inflation.
Fiscal 2021 was a year like no other and despite the challenges of constantly shifting capacity restrictions and an uncertain guest demand, we delivered $7.2 billion in total sales.
The actions we took in response to COVID-19 to solidify our cash position and transform our business model help build a solid foundation for recovery and resulted in over $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA and over $920 million of free cash flow.
As a result, we repaid our term loan, reinstated our pre-COVID dividend and quickly built up our cash position.
Our disciplined approach to simplifying operations and driving profitable sales growth positions us well for the future.
This results in a yield of 3.2% based on yesterday's closing share price.
Finally, turning to our financial outlook for fiscal 2022, we assume full operating capacity for essentially all restaurants and we do not anticipate any significant business interruptions related to COVID-19.
Based on these assumptions, we expect total sales of $9.2 billion to $9.5 billion, representing growth of 5% to 8% from pre-COVID levels, same restaurant sales growth of 25% to 29% and 35 to 40 new restaurants.
Capital spending of $375 million to $425 million, total inflation of approximately 3% with commodities inflation of approximately 2.5%, and hourly labor inflation of approximately 6%.
EBITDA of $1.5 billion to $1.59 billion, and annual effective tax rate of 13% to 14% and approximately 131 million diluted average shares outstanding for the year.
All resulting in a diluted net earnings per share between $7 and $7.50.

user
qtrly adjusted diluted net earnings per share was $2.03.
sees fiscal 2022 total sales of about $9.2 to $9.5 billion.
sees fiscal 2022 same-restaurant sales versus.
fiscal 2021 of 25% to 29%.
sees fiscal 2022 diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations of $7.00 to $7.50.
qtrly same-restaurant sales (open 16 months or greater) for consolidated darden up 90.4%.
darden restaurants - qtrly same-restaurant sales (open 16 months or greater) for olive garden up 61.9%.

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