October 10, 2005

Chain Earnings Report

Starbucks, Darden and Smith & Wollensky were among the multi-unit operators reporting op-erating results over the past week.

• Starbucks Corp. reported consolidated net revenues of $653 million for the five-week period ended Oct. 2, 2005, an increase of 5% from consolidated net revenues of $625 million for the six-week period in fiscal 2004. Same-store sales increased 8% for the year. For the 52 weeks ended Oct. 2, 2005, consolidated net revenues were $6.4 billion, an increase of 20% from consolidated net revenues of $5.3 billion for the 53 weeks ended in fiscal 2004.
• Darden Restaurants reported same-restaurant sales results for the five-week September fiscal month ended Oct. 2, 2005, the first month of Darden's fiscal 2006 second quarter. Same-store sales at Olive Garden increased 4% to 5% for fiscal September. For Red Lobster, same-store sales increased more than 2% for fiscal September, compared to flat sales in the same period in 2005. Darden estimates that September's two hurricanes adversely affected same-restaurant sales at both Red Lobster and Olive Garden by approximately 0.5% and that the total sales impact to the com-pany was $3.5 to $4.0 million. The company noted that the prior year's fiscal September sales were adversely affected by three hurricanes: Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. At the moment, three res-taurants – one Olive Garden and two Red Lobsters – remain closed indefinitely because of Hurri-cane Katrina. Two Olive Garden restaurants remain closed temporarily because of Hurricane Rita.
• The Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group announced sales for the third quarter totaled ap-proximately $26.8 million, up 9.5% over the comparable third-quarter period in 2004. For the fis-cal month of September 2005, total consolidated restaurant sales were $11.1 million, an increase of 11.0% from the same period one year ago.

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