Darden Restaurants, Inc.

Greetings, and welcome to the Darden Restaurant's fiscal year 2025 Q4 earnings conference call webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. You may be placed into question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad, and we ask you please ask one question and one follow-up, then return to the queue. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Courtney Aquillette, Senior Director of Finance and Investor Relations. Courtney, please go ahead.

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating on today's call. Joining me are Rick Cardenas, Darden's President and CEO, and Raj Bhanam, CFO. As a reminder, comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. Those risks are described in the company's press release, which was distributed this morning, and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are simultaneously broadcasting a presentation during this call, which is posted in the investor relations section of our website at Darden.com. Today's discussion and presentation includes certain non-GAAP measurements, and reconciliations of these measurements are included in the presentation. Looking ahead, we plan to release fiscal 2026 first quarter earnings on Thursday, September 18th, before the market opens, followed by a conference call. During today's call, I'll reference to the industry Results refer to the Black Box Intelligence casual dining benchmark excluding Darden. During the fiscal fourth quarter, average same-restaurant sales for the industry grew 3.0%, and average same-restaurant guest counts grew 0.9%. This morning, Rick will share some brief remarks on the quarter. Raj will provide details on our fourth quarter and full-year financial results, as well as share our fiscal 2026 financial outlook. Then Rick will close with some final comments. Now I will turn the call over to Rick.

Thank you, Courtney. Good morning, everyone. We had a strong quarter with same restaurant sales and earnings growth that exceeded our expectations. I'm proud of the great work by our restaurant teams throughout the quarter, particularly on Mother's Day, as several brands achieved sales records for that day. The return of Olive Garden's buy one, take one offer for the first time in five years, combined with the continued strength of off-premise, drove their impressive sales during the quarter. Olive Garden's marketing strategy to meaningfully communicate strong value, create urgency, and introduce food news continue to resonate as guests are motivated by news and compelling price points. Buy One, Take One, with a starting price point of $14.99, allowed guests to choose one entree for their dining experience and then take a second one home. The take-home selections leveraged Olive Garden's existing $6 take-home platform, minimizing operational complexity. During buy one, take one, Olive Garden's same restaurant sales gap versus the industry increased to 450 basis points. With delivery available nationwide the entire quarter, Olive Garden continued to see order volume grow week to week while retaining higher than average sales per transaction versus curbside pickup orders. This, combined with continued growth in catering and curbside to go, drove overall takeout sales to grow nearly 20% over last year. At the end of the quarter, Olive Garden launched a campaign to promote delivery across multiple channels, including television advertising, with a compelling and memorable offer. One million free deliveries, partially funded by Uber. We continue to see strong incrementality, with average weekly deliveries per restaurant nearly doubling during the last two weeks of the quarter. The Olive Garden team continued to execute at a high level, which led to an all-time high guest satisfaction score for the quarter. I am extremely proud of how Dan Kiernan and his team manage the business throughout the year and the strong momentum they have generated heading into the new fiscal year. At Longhorn Steakhouse, their ongoing commitment to quality, simplicity, and culture continues to drive their momentum. Their entire team remains obsessed with serving the highest quality steaks in casual dining. This includes having industry-leading specifications and ensuring they perfectly season and grill every steak they serve. To support this, during the quarter, Olive Garden validated each one of their grill masters' expertise with the eighth annual Steak Master Series, their internal grilling competition and training program. Congratulations to Tim Crane from the Longhorn Steakhouse in Independence, Missouri, who claimed the championship trophy. This focus on ongoing training continues to pay off. As Longhorn ended the year with an all-time high Steaks Grill Correctly score, as well as a new all-time high guest satisfaction score for the quarter. Laura Williamson and her team have done a great job of building on the business momentum at Longhorn. For the fiscal year, their same restaurant sales increased 5.1%, and they reached a major milestone by surpassing $3 billion in total sales. These results reflect the strength of their focused strategy. Last quarter, we announced Cheddar Scratch Kitchen had begun piloting UberDirect. It was a successful pilot and, as of last week, delivery is now available in all but eight Cheddar's restaurants. Paid media and email support began earlier this week, partially funded by Uber. The Cheddar's marketing team also continues to build on its use of connected television, debuting the first 30-second spot in Cheddar's history during the quarter. The spot was developed at no cost to Darden, thanks to the scale of our CTV media spend across our portfolio. In addition to Olive Garden Longhorn, Cheddar's also received an all-time high guest satisfaction score for the quarter, as did Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and Eddie V's. We know that engaged, well-trained team members helped drive operational success, and two of our brands were recognized for their people practices during the quarter. Longhorn and the Capital Grill received the Employer of Choice Awards from Black Box Intelligence for casual dining and fine dining, respectively. The award recognizes exemplary performance in managing turnover rates, fostering an inclusive workplace culture, and implementing best-in-class people practices. Overall, I am pleased with our results. Our adherence to our winning strategy, anchored in our four competitive advantages and being brilliant with the basics, led to a successful year. Our strategy remains the right one for the company, and we will continue to execute it to drive growth and long-term shareholder value. Now I will turn it over to Raj.