Dive Brief:
- Darden Restaurants has signed a multi-year, exclusive deal with Uber, which will offer delivery from Olive Garden restaurants, the company said ahead of its earnings call Thursday.
- Some Olive Garden locations will offer the delivery option starting in late 2024, according to the press release.
- Darden will offer delivery using Uber Direct — the tech company’s white-label delivery service — and customers will be able to order through Darden’s restaurant channels, including its apps and websites.
Dive Insight:
The delivery program will kick off at as few as five or six Olive Garden restaurants to test the technology, Darden CEO Rick Cardenas said on the company’s Q1 2025 earnings call. Next, the test will expand to about 100 restaurants, or roughly one-ninth of Olive Garden’s U.S. system, for the remainder of the pilot period.
Depending on the success of market testing, Darden will launch Uber Direct at the brand’s roughly 900 company-operated stores in the U.S. by May 2025. The white-label service will let the restaurant giant retain valuable consumer information generated by Uber delivery transactions.
The companies began discussing this option in April 2024 before working on systems integration in May, Cardenas said on the call.
Cardenas said in the press release that Uber’s “investment in a custom-integration, commitment to Olive Garden's first-party delivery growth, and efficiency and speed at a national scale, made this exclusive partnership a clear choice.” The delivery deal will not significantly disrupt restaurant operations, he said on the call, and Olive Garden will continue to offer its large-order catering service.
Not all of Darden’s brands will be immediately available, Cardenas said, with additions determined on a brand-by-brand basis. Darden will continue using its capacity management tools to keep volumes from swamping restaurants.
Cardenas said that the menu prices for delivery will be the same as in other ordering channels. Rather than create separate prices for delivery, the company will charge a delivery service fee or set of fees made transparent to the consumer.
While it will take time to build sales through the channel, Darden can use all the help it can get at Olive Garden. Darden’s flagship brand saw same-restaurant sales fall 2.9% in the quarter, and across all brands the company’s same-restaurant sales dropped 1.1% compared to the year-ago period.
White-label delivery is an attractive option for recognizable restaurant brands, since orders still come through their owned channels. Last year, White Castle entered a similar agreement with Uber.
