Dive Brief:
- Darden Restaurants closed 15 of 43 Bahama Breeze restaurants earlier this month, the chain confirmed in an email to Restaurant Dive. The company also closed an Eddie V’s location in Boston, and two Seasons 52 units in Sacramento, California and the Kansas City area.
- The shuttered Bahama Breeze restaurants were spread across eight states, but the bulk were concentrated in Florida and New Jersey.
- Darden said the closures would push its smaller brands to focus on remaining, high-performing stores and, ultimately, improve the brand’s performance.
Dive Insight:
Darden said the closures followed a careful analysis of store performance. The company sought to shift workers from the closing units to other, nearby Darden restaurants. Workers who could not be transferred were given severance pay.
Darden didn’t comment on whether further closures at its brands would follow as a result of the analysis.
Even before President Donald Trump’s tariff policy began pressuring supply chains and roiling international markets, many restaurant chains — particularly in the full-service sector — were having a rough year.
Dine Brands, for instance, projected new closures at Applebee’s and IHOP. Bloomin’, among others, laid off a chunk of its corporate workforce in Q1. Denny’s, which likewise laid off corporate employees, is speeding up its closure rate. And Red Robin announced it would close up to 70 stores in the coming years.
Darden’s flagship brand, Olive Garden, has seen some same-store sales growth in the last two quarters. The brand’s company-operated footprint increased modestly over the last year, from 917 to 927 units.
