R&I’s 2007 Consumers’ Choice in Chains Awards: Italian

Special Report: R&I’s 2007 Consumers’ Choice in Chains Awards: Italian

By Staff -- Restaurants & Institutions, 9/15/2007

Olive Garden
Headquarters: Orlando
President: Dave Pickens
Units: 603
Average check: $14.50
R&I Top 400 Chains rank: 19 Respondents aware of chain: 92%
Respondents who visited in previous 12 months: 40%
STRENGTHS: Olive Garden’s advantages include familiarity (92% awareness) and brand strength (a category-high rating for reputation). The chain also benefits from the Italian category’s highest retention rate (92% will return). Its ratings for food quality, menu variety, value and service are all up from last year.
WEAKNESS: Millennials give Olive Garden’s weakest menu-variety rating.

Carrabba’s
Headquarters: Tampa, Fla.
President: Steven Shlemon
Units: 229
Average check: $21.00
R&I Top 400 Chains rank: 62
Respondents aware of chain: 29%
Respondents who visited in previous 12 months: 6%
STRENGTHS: Carrabba’s food-quality rating maintains a slight edge over Olive Garden’s with help from an especially high rating by Gen X customers. This demographic also gives Carrabba’s a high rating for atmosphere, an attribute that scores above-average in consumer importance for Italian chains.
WEAKNESS: Women give it an appreciably lower value rating than do men.
Headquarters: Minneapolis

Buca di Beppo
Chairman-CEO: Wallace Doolin
Units: 91
Average check: $19.33
R&I Top 400 Chains rank: 133
Respondents aware of chain: 17%
Respondents who visited in previous 12 months: 4%
STRENGTHS: Buca di Beppo gets the Italian category’s second-highest ratings for menu variety and value. For both of these attributes, the chain’s highest ratings come from customers between the ages of 27 and 41. But Millennials have the highest return intent (97%).
WEAKNESS: The food-quality rating from male customers is 10 points lower than that from female guests.

How Italian Chains Stack Up With Consumers