Darden Searches For A New Brand

USA TODAY:

Pineapple upside down cake is nearing perfection. Cooks are simmering citrus-rum scallops and whipping up a brown sugar rib glaze.

The test oven rarely goes off at Darden Restaurants (DRI), the world’s largest casual dining operator, which runs Olive Garden, Red Lobster and 3 other chains.

But times are lean in the industry, and Darden will have to grow if it wants to stay at the top. It plans aggressive expansion of its already-ubiquitous Italian eatery, and might even buy another restaurant chain.

The changes come as Darden tries to move past its failed Smokey Bones operation, a more than 9-year investment in American barbecue that never caught on.

In May, the company closed nearly half its 129 Bones locations and put the other 73 on the sales block because stores weren’t selling enough. Full-year earnings dropped about 40% last fiscal year largely because of charges related to the Smokey Bones moves…