Red Lobster
It's a good time to be a casual dining seafood restaurant. Seafood is the number-one choice among casual dining customers, especially aging baby boomers. Fish and shellfish are growing in popularity with increasingly health-conscious consumers, and casual dining sales have climbed to $59 billion — an all time high. These positive dynamics bode well for Red Lobster, the nation's leader in casual dining seafood with a 49 percent market share.
    Red Lobster's sales performance during fiscal 2003 certainly confirmed these dynamics. For the 22nd consecutive quarter, we posted comparable U.S. restaurant sales growth. Total sales for the year reached a record high of $2.43 billion, up 4.1 percent from last year, while average annual sales per restaurant were $3.7 million, also a record. We opened 11 new restaurants during the year, growing Red Lobster to 673 restaurants in North America that serve more than 140 million guests each year.
    To continue achieving the highest levels of operational excellence and continue to grow, we must consistently and continually bring our vision to life: Red Lobster is every community's favorite seafood restaurant… Dedicated to delighting each guest and… Making the flavors and feelings of the seaside available to everyone. To achieve this vision, we continue to focus on:
  • Refreshing the décor of our restaurants with our award-winning Coastal Home design. Our renovated restaurants deliver an up-to-date atmosphere that captures the feelings of the seaside and that our guests love.
  • Leading our crew members to achieve extraordinary levels of commitment and performance. Our strong training and selection systems are the foundations that have resulted in turnover rates that are among the lowest in casual dining.
  • Demonstrating food and beverage excellence through ongoing menu innovations, to bring terrific new flavors to our guests, along with our well-loved favorites.
  • Delivering service and hospitality excellence with service processes and styles that delight every guest by meeting their needs and providing unexpected pleasures. The overall result has been greater guest satisfaction, as evidenced by improved Guest Satisfaction Survey ratings.
  • Communicating and living Share the Love™, our powerful message to consumers that captures the opportunity to enjoy the food they love with people they love at Red Lobster, while being cared for as treasured friends.
    Red Lobster began delighting guests with the flavors and feelings of the seaside 35 years ago, when our first restaurant opened. Our commitment to evolving the Red Lobster brand to sustain and grow our appeal to casual dining consumers is the foundation of our ongoing success. Our recipe for excellence is simply this: a committed and capable crew, delivering our brand to every guest, combined with diligent management of our business model to deliver quality earnings, now and for generations to come.