A customer arrives at a Darden Restaurants Inc. Olive Garden location in San Antonio, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, June 14, 2018.
Callaghan O’Hare | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Darden Restaurants said Tuesday that it is furloughing some restaurant support center employees and slashing executive pay as same-store sales plummet 39% so far in the fiscal fourth quarter.
Shares of the restaurant company rose 13% in trading. The stock, which has a market value of $7.1 billion, has dropped 45% so far in 2020.
In the week ended Sunday, Darden’s same-store sales fell 71% across all of its chains, which include Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen.
Olive Garden’s same-store sales have declined 34.5% so far in the fourth quarter, as of Sunday. Same-store sales at LongHorn steakhouse have fallen 36.4% in the same time period. But both chains are seeing significant spikes in to-go sales per restaurant. Olive Garden’s off-premise sales have jumped 141.6%, while LongHorn…
