Red Lobster Moves to China Essays

Small and mid-cap restaurants that were heavily franchised (less than 25% of stores owned by the

Meanwhile, in 1970’s Chicago, Richard Melman worked with a couple different partners and investors to build a network of restaurants in the Chicagoland area called Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, or commonly LEYE . “By the mid-1980s, his network of restaurants employed about 2,000 people in the Chicago area and annual revenues stood at about $40 million” (Wilson). In 1999, Melman teamed up with the second generation of Weisses to partner to create a location in Chicago, called Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak, & Stone Crab (a slightly different name to differentiate from the original). In 2005, LEYE partnered with the Weisses to open Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak, & Stone Crab in Las Vegas and again in 2014 to open the third in Washington, D.C.

The fast food industry is a ‘red ocean’ as it is already well defined where rivalry is intense. It is also a perfectly competitive industry as the barriers to entry are low and there are many rivals

Darden Restaurants, Incorporated began with its founder William (Bill) Darden in 1938. At the age of nineteen, Bill opened his first restaurant, The Green Frog, in Georgia. Thirty years later, Bill opened another restaurant, Red Lobster. His focus for the restaurant was to provide quality seafood at affordable prices to landlocked cities. Located in the center of Florida, Lakeland was the perfect city to begin Bill’s restaurant legacy. Offering a prime location, the city sat in the center of the state, one of the furthest points from water in Florida.

It is this mix of key factors that has empowered Boston Pizza to serve a bigger number of clients in a greater number of areas than many other full-service restaurants in Canada (BP International Inc., 2014).

It operates and franchises convenience stores around the world. It has been the prominent franchise in

But where are the highlights on the duties of those who play key roles in the company’s evolution?

To date all restaurants are company-owned and not franchised. Restaurants cover forty-three states in the U.S., Canada, England, and France. The only variation to the original model has been an increased environmental awareness and a “Test Restaurant” in Washington D.C. that serves Asian-Style fast casual food.

Darden Restaurants owns a number of specialty brands that are located throughout the United States and Canada. These include: the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, the Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, Eddie V's Prime Seafood and Wildfish Seafood Grille. The company has 2 thousand locations and they employ 135 thousand people. Their primary markets are middle class to affluent families. ("Our Company," 2012)

Finally, a recommendation for Darden could be to decrease of food borne illness to prevent lawsuits. Ashley Post recommends to analyze where the food borne illness outbreak is coming from the most and analyze if the restaurants use the same supplier for things such as produce and other cooking items. The analyzation could result in changing suppliers, because the supplies being received could be tainted. Top management has to take extra measures to communicate with lower level employees to see how to prevent this ongoing issue in the same areas. According to Post in 2013, changing the supplier of food could result in a decrease in food borne illness throughout Darden.

One of them is Le Montréal from which you can have a breathtaking view of the city and super refined cuisine that is inspired by the latest trends. Since we opened, our kitchen’s innovative chefs have been incredibly innovative in preparing seafood and grilled meats with market fresh products. Another restaurant is Pavilion 67 where we offer fine gourmet food that is well prepared and always at its best. Additionally, it has unrivaled fresh, abundant and flavorful warm and relaxed ambiance. Other restaurants include Ajia and L’Instant.

Multinational companies opt to franchise as a way of expansion strategy (Siebert, n.d.). Chick-fil-A is dominant only in the US market. The firm has only ventured into the Canadian market in the airport of Calgary. Many United States Corporations have engaged in franchising in the United States as a form of the expansion strategy. Laws concerning franchising are neither strict in Canada. Our form of non-equity mode will be franchising, therefore our form of entry will be a small-scale entry. This will allow our company to get exposure in key locations and learn from Canadian consumers. The benefit to franchising at first is that it is less costly and less risky for the franchisor.

The Boiling Crab is considered to be a restaurant business; therefore, the main focus of the business is to increase new customers and sustain the existing customers. The restaurant is also considered to be in the service business, so many customers expect a good service and food from this kind of business. Moreover, referring to table 1, the main focus of the business is in California because twelve locations have already opened, but the other four locations will be opened soon. Referring to IBIS World, the business location percentage for the seafood in California is 14.4% which is the highest percent in U.S. Therefore, the company focuses on the right location for the seafood restaurant.

Darden Restaurants, Inc. has been a public company since 1995. A company born of the chain Red Lobster, Darden is a recent spin-off as a result of mergers and acquisitions of various types. Publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Darden (DRI) is the parent company of Red Lobster, The Olive Garden, the now-defunct China Coast concept, and a new “Floribbean” concept: Bahama Breezes.

Darden takes its suppliers very seriously, prior to doing business, the supplier must be qualified and a Total Quality Management Team assigned to that vendor. Product tracking occurs with inspection teams that identify the lot ID, atmospheric packaging, and the ability to track the order from origin to receipt of goods. For their many restaurants, Darden structures its supplies from 5 continents and thousands of suppliers, but insists on independent and accurate assessments in order to maintain relationships. Everything must be JIT inventory except smallware.