A Prime Pairing: The Analytics Behind Darden’s Acquisition of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse

The value of an acquisition takes many forms. We looked at Darden’s portfolio of brands today and where Ruth’s Chris fits strategically into their business.

Photo by Clark Douglas on Unsplash

In This Article We’re Asking…

• Who is Darden Restaurants?
• What made Ruth’s Chris an attractive acquisition?
• Where does this acquisition drive value to Darden?

We’ll be touching on building diversified multi-brand portfolios, aligning location with product-market fit, and looking at the value of acquisitions.

Darden Today

Darden is a portfolio of 7 restaurant brands, almost 1,900 locations, and just under $10B in revenue. Their most well-known brands are Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse.

Source: Company materials as of year end 2022

The portfolio of brands touches a variety of customer segments and price points. We’ve segmented them into three areas:

• Value: Price points that serve…