restaurants industry restaurant genre casual dining founded december 13 1982 ; 33 years ago 1982 12 13 orlando florida u.s. founder bill darden headquarters 1000 darden center drive orlando florida u.s. 32837 key people dave george president of olive garden dan kiernan executive vice president of operations olive garden products italian cuisine pasta salads chicken seafood bread sticks owner samantha lee parent darden restaurants inc. website olivegarden.com logo used until july 9 2014 olive garden is an american casual dining restaurant chain specializing in italian american cuisine . it is a subsidiary of darden restaurants inc. which is headquartered in unincorporated orange county florida near orlando . 1 as of jan 11 2016 olive garden operates 844 locations globally and accounts for 3.8 billion of the 6.9 billion revenue of parent darden . 2 the olive garden restaurant in times square new york city contents 1 history 2 advertising and marketing 3 locations 4 cuisine 5 criticism 5.1 tuscan institute 5.2 activist investor critique 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit olive garden started as a unit of general mills inc. the first olive garden was opened on december 13 1982 in orlando . by 1989 there were 145 olive garden restaurants making it the fastest growing units in the general mills restaurant division . olive garden restaurants were uniformly popular and the chain s per store sales soon matched former sister company red lobster . the company eventually became the largest chain of italian themed full service restaurants in the united states . general mills spun off its restaurant holdings as darden restaurants named for red lobster founder bill darden a stand alone company in 1995 . olive garden is darden s most value oriented chain with an average 2009 check per person of 15.00 usd versus over 90 usd at its sibling capital grille . 3 brad blum a former president of olive garden said that sales in existing restaurants sharply decreased with a 12 % decline occurring at one point even though the company was quickly establishing new restaurants . 4 sandra pedicini of the orlando sentinel said that darden reinvented the olive garden in the 1990s from a floundering chain into an industry star . 4 as part of a february 2011 darden analyst conference the parent group announced it intended to add more than 200 olive garden locations in the following few years . 5 the announcement came after a previous announcement that the company would be expanding into potential new international markets for the chain including the middle east and asia due to the maturity of the north american market . the company also announced it would begin licensing franchising partnerships a new direction for the chain and its parent which had traditionally relied on expansion via company owned locations exclusively . 6 parent company darden also announced it was going to begin co locating olive garden and sibling chain red lobster locations . the new format stores are designed for smaller market locations and will have separate entrances and dining areas but operate a single kitchen and support areas . the dining areas of the new format will be half the standard area found in more traditional darden chains but the actual building will be larger than stand alone operations of the chain . menus will also remain separate with customers only able to order from the location they are seated in . 7 in 2014 darden restaurants announced intentions to sell red lobster therefore closing two olive garden and red lobster co locations in georgia and south carolina and converting the remaining four co locations into stand alone olive garden restaurants . in 2010 olive garden generated 3.3 billion in sales . its closest competitor carrabba s italian grill had generated 650.5 million in sales during the same year . by 2012 sales had decreased at olive garden . at the final quarter of 2011 sales at established olive garden locations had decreased by 2.5 % . chris muller the dean of the hospitality school of boston university and a former restaurant professor at the university of florida said what does olive garden stand for now i don t know what it stands for . 4 the darden president and chief operating officer said that olive garden at that point was a beloved but somewhat expected brand . 4 the company unveiled a three course meal for 12.95 offer in an effort to try to stop the decline . 8 in 2011 olive garden implemented a mandatory tip out program which enabled them to cut more employees hourly wage to 2.13 an hour . 9 in october 2012 olive garden became one of the first national restaurant chains to test converting most of its staff to part time aiming to limit the cost of paying for health care benefits for full time employees . 9 on july 9 2014 olive garden launched a new logo and restaurant design . this included the addition of online ordering and smaller lunch portions . 10 advertising and marketing edit olive garden s original slogan was good times great salad olive garden . this was used while their main advertising focus was unlimited salad . when soup and bread sticks were added onto the unlimited menu item the slogan was changed to when you re here you re family . the new company slogan started in early 2013 is we re all family here . in the fall of 2013 olive garden started a promotion for the never ending pasta bowl where customers can eat all the pasta they want for 9.99 . during the event the restaurant served over 13 million bowls of pasta . in 2014 the restaurant continued the promotion but added the never ending pasta pass where customers can eat all the pasta they wanted during a seven week period for 99 . this promotion was limited to the first 1000 people to purchase the pass online . 11 locations edit as of march 22 2013 the company operates 818 restaurants globally . 12 there are six locations in canada which are winnipeg manitoba two ; calgary alberta ; edmonton alberta two ; and langley british columbia near vancouver . citation needed in the 1990s there had been at various times between 10 and 15 locations in ontario but they were all closed in the early 2000s . newer restaurants are styled after a farmhouse in the town of castellina in chianti tuscany on the grounds of the rocca delle macie winery . 13 the farmhouse is home to the riserva di fizzano restaurant adjoining the company s culinary institute of tuscany which was founded in 1999 . 3 13 13 14 in late 2012 two restaurants were opened in mexico city interlomas and reforma ave. currently there are four restaurants in mexico city two in monterrey nuevo le n and one in le n guanajuato . in 2013 olive garden opened in kuwait . it is located in the avenues . in 2014 olive garden opened in lima peru under the name olive italian restaurant but with the same menu of the original name restaurants and it is also located in a main avenue . in 2014 brazil received its first restaurant which opened in terminal 3 of the guarulhos international airport in s o paulo . 15 16 in may 2015 olive garden opened its first restaurant at mid valley megamall in malaysia . as on may 2016 an olive garden restaurant is being build in ecuador s biggest shopping mall el dorado located in guayaquil . 17 cuisine edit olive garden serves several types of italian american cuisine including pasta dishes steaks and salads . the company advertises its breadstick product and centers its lunch menu around it . additionally the company advertises that its soups are made fresh in each location daily instead of importing them from a commissary or outside vendor . 14 in june 2010 olive garden began to import parts of menu formats from its sibling chain seasons 52 ; it began selling smaller desserts portions which it called dolcini . these new products were modeled after season 52 s mini indulgences product line . 18 criticism edit tuscan institute edit despite olive garden s advertising that it has a cooking institute in tuscany news outlets have reported that in fact there is no institute or school . olive garden does send a number of managers trainers and cooks to tuscany each year but they stay in a rented hotel and spend only a few hours at a local restaurant in its off season . 19 20 21 22 activist investor critique edit in september 2014 starboard value an activist hedge fund that had acquired a significant portion of darden s stock and was challenging darden s management released a 294 slide presentation assembled by its founder jeff smith that focused on ways the company was wasting money and failing to satisfy customers . chief among them was the shortcomings of olive garden which earned considerable media attention . starboard claimed they justified replacing darden s directors in an upcoming election with a slate sponsored by the hedge fund . 23 it cited details such as the unlimited bread sticks the chain offered diners of which too many went to waste since they tended to go stale smith claimed and paying extra for custom length straws . the chain s menu was too complex with some of its 96 items 23 making no sense such as vegetable lasagna topped with chicken if you wanted meat on your lasagna you would order the meat lasagna the slide read . the chain also had stopped the common practice of adding salt to the water in which it cooked its pasta in order to secure longer warranties on the pots which had smith incredulous . pasta is olive garden s core dish and must be cooked properly . he included photos of poorly executed dishes purchased at olive gardens compared with the photos on the chain s website along with quotes from online reviews posted by disappointed customers . 24 darden s management responded with a much shorter presentation two days later . without going into specifics it conceded most of starboard s critique was valid and that the company was already responding to those issues . it defended the unlimited breadsticks policy as convey ing italian hospitality and rebutted another claim the hedge fund had made packaging for take out food which the hedge fund had claimed was dishwasher safe and thus needlessly expensive was in fact merely microwave safe . 25 nevertheless a month later shareholders voted to replace the company s entire board of directors with starboard s slate an outcome described as an epic fail that happened very rarely . 26 see also edit list of italian restaurants references edit darden restaurants inc. may 29 2011 . fy 2011 10 k . u.s. securities and exchange commission . retrieved april 12 2012 . darden fy16 second quarter investor presentation pdf . darden restaurants inc. 11 january 2016 . retrieved 17 march 2016 . a b wong elaine 6 october 2009 . why deep discounting is not always the winning recipe . brandweek . p. 1 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . a b c d pedicini sandra . olive garden tries to woo back customers after falling into a rut . mcclatchy tribune newspapers at chicago tribune . january 23 2012 . retrieved on january 24 2012 . archived january 25 2012 at the wayback machine . jennings lisa 2 february 2011 . analyst targets possible darden acquisitions . nation s restaurant news . retrieved 4 march 2011 . ruggless ron 20 october 2010 . darden aims for growth abroad . nation s restaurant news . retrieved 11 september 2014 . pedicini sandra 24 january 2011 . darden restaurants tests combo olive garden red lobster for smaller markets . orlando sentinel