America’s favorite seafood restaurant enters its fourth decade with renewed vigor and strong momentum, behind the leadership of new President Dick Rivera and his team.

The major investments Red Lobster is making to achieve over-the-top performance in food, service and training are beginning to pay off:

• Our 4.5% same-restaurant sales gain in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998 was the largest such gain in five years.
• Operating profits more than doubled during the year, including a strong double-digit increase in the fourth quarter.
• Through our in-restaurant Guest Satisfaction Survey, guests rated us significantly higher in every category, including overall satisfaction, server knowledge, taste of food and value.

As performance improves, so does the enthusiasm and spirit among the crews in our 682 restaurants. That is leading to a more fun, upbeat atmosphere — part of the ongoing effort to freshen Red Lobster’s image and give guests a remarkable dining experience. “I’m proud of the efforts our teams are making to meet our goal of delighting every guest,” says Dick Rivera. “And based on our rising guest satisfaction ratings, guests are noticing.”

We took many steps to “rescue” our guests from dry and boring experiences, as refreshingly promoted in our new “Life on Land is Dry” campaign. Nearly every restaurant has a “Fun Force” — a group of employees who boost the energy and fun for guests and crewmates by planning special events such as ’50s theme nights. We also rolled out a more fun, laid-back dress standard for the front-of-the-house crew, and colorful new plateware.

Meanwhile, we continued to leverage our ability to source top-quality fresh fish by offering a wide variety of species in a number of delicious preparations every day. And we developed some exciting, traffic-building promotions like our successful “Pound of Crab” event.

Both longtime guests and new customers are discovering that Red Lobster is “30 years new.” As the world’s largest seafood restaurant company gains steam in our drive to provide a world-class dining experience to every guest, more exciting changes are just over the next waves.