Red Lobster Case Synopsis
HRT 6301 Hospitality and Tourism Strategic Management
Dr. H. Chacko
September 2013
Case Report Assignment 1
1.0 Introduction
Red Lobster is a casual dining full service restaurant established in 1968 in Lakeland, Florida by Bill Darden. Red Lobster specializes in fresh seafood. The Red Lobster restaurant chain is part of the Darden restaurant company and was one of the first casual dining full service restaurants to succeed on a national level. There are approximately 700 Red Lobster restaurants operating in the United States, Canada, Japan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Red Lobster’s annual revenue, as of February 26, 2013, was $2.6 billion dollars.
In early 2000, it was thought that Red Lobster had run its course and was in the stagnant/decline stage of a products life cycle. In 2004, Kim Lopdrup became the president of the Red Lobster restaurant chain. From the beginning of his executive position at Red Lobster, Lopdrup has implemented various strategies to pull the restaurant chain up from its descent and back to a steady maintenance of new growth and maturity, as well as repositioning for sustained success. It began with the marketing department conducting a survey geared towards the customers so that the data they gathered would assist the company in creating strategies that were customer driven. These strategies would be implemented in 3 phases over the course of 10 years.
Phase 1
This first phase commenced immediately and it entailed improving the day to day operations by streamlining procedures so that there would be smaller margins of error. The operations team introduced benchmark ways of doing things and a high level of consistency and uniformity from all of the restaurants was expected.
Phase 2
The second phase was very crucial to the companies repositioning for sustained success. The repositioning of the company was centered on changing the negative perception of the quality of seafood being served. The repositioning
Dr. H. Chacko
September 2013
Case Report Assignment 1
1.0 Introduction
Red Lobster is a casual dining full service restaurant established in 1968 in Lakeland, Florida by Bill Darden. Red Lobster specializes in fresh seafood. The Red Lobster restaurant chain is part of the Darden restaurant company and was one of the first casual dining full service restaurants to succeed on a national level. There are approximately 700 Red Lobster restaurants operating in the United States, Canada, Japan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Red Lobster’s annual revenue, as of February 26, 2013, was $2.6 billion dollars.
In early 2000, it was thought that Red Lobster had run its course and was in the stagnant/decline stage of a products life cycle. In 2004, Kim Lopdrup became the president of the Red Lobster restaurant chain. From the beginning of his executive position at Red Lobster, Lopdrup has implemented various strategies to pull the restaurant chain up from its descent and back to a steady maintenance of new growth and maturity, as well as repositioning for sustained success. It began with the marketing department conducting a survey geared towards the customers so that the data they gathered would assist the company in creating strategies that were customer driven. These strategies would be implemented in 3 phases over the course of 10 years.
Phase 1
This first phase commenced immediately and it entailed improving the day to day operations by streamlining procedures so that there would be smaller margins of error. The operations team introduced benchmark ways of doing things and a high level of consistency and uniformity from all of the restaurants was expected.
Phase 2
The second phase was very crucial to the companies repositioning for sustained success. The repositioning of the company was centered on changing the negative perception of the quality of seafood being served. The repositioning