Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript - Page 19 of 19 - InvestingChannel

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Raj Vennam: Okay. Let me first start with the coverage. So yeah, you pointed out, we have about 55% coverage for the next six months, which is actually the same as what we had a year ago, but a bit lower than what we would have had before COVID. In terms of the ability to get coverage, I would say at this point, it’s still difficult to secure long-term coverage at the prices we like for beef and that’s really the primary driver. If you look at our coverage, we don’t have as much coverage in beef as we would have liked to at this point in time. And then the other point, as poultry, you see that we have about 65% covered, but normally, we’re much more covered in that. Part of that is because we renewed — we started a contract last year in December that actually just expires this December.

So we’re in the midst of trying to renegotiate that. And so that’s kind of the reason why we’re a little bit lower. But yeah, you’re right. I mean, we would like to have a little bit more coverage. But as I mentioned, beef is still not where it is, would like it to be, especially going past the holidays, it’s hard to lock out – getting into the holiday, December and pass, it’s hard to lock in at prices we like. So from a dining room perspective, both LongHorn and Olive Garden had traffic growth in the quarter, right? So that means that some of the guests this off-premise question you asked, it’s shifting to the dining room. So we’re not concerned because, yeah, off-premise was down a couple of points that Olive Garden gotten year-over-year, but that means the dining room grew by more than 2 points.

And that’s — we’re happy with that. We actually prefer to have guests in the dining room.

Andrew Strelzik: Great. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Kevin Kalicak for any closing comments.

Kevin Kalicak: Thank you. That concludes our call. And I’d like to remind you that we plan to release second quarter results on Friday, December 15, before the market opens with the conference call to follow. Thank you for all for participating in today’s call.

Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today’s teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.

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