G&A expense was 90 basis points lower, driven by savings from the corporate restructuring in fiscal 2021, a decrease in mark-to-market expense, lower travel expenses, and sales leverage.

Mar 24, 2022 / receipt, needs a key / Raj, CFO | earnings call 2022-03-24 | transcript 23b6294b-b016-441b-a097-a26af5a82050 | chars 12879-13065 | segment 13

We think that there's a pathway to get there. I think it's dangerous to say, you know, I've been in this business and doing this for a long time, and, you know, every time we run a brand, we put out numbers that we think are potential. If the brand is really strong, we kind of get through those numbers pretty easily. So, you know, let's just say one of our underlying beliefs is that convenience is going to continue to matter. We're going to need to build restaurants closer to where people live. And we also believe, especially in Olive Garden, that we can build in more remote areas that have these large, what I would call these like 60-mile trade areas where people travel in and out to get food. get things, and dine.

Sep 23, 2021 / receipt, needs a key / Brian, CEO | earnings call 2021-09-23 | transcript df4b1eed-cb4e-4703-84ff-cf5dd93885f5 | chars 56645-57370 | segment 59

I think that I think people who aren't traveling for business as much as they used to are using fine dining restaurants, maybe a little bit more on the weekend, which has been great to see.

Sep 23, 2021 / receipt, needs a key / Gene, CEO | earnings call 2021-09-23 | transcript df4b1eed-cb4e-4703-84ff-cf5dd93885f5 | chars 24819-25008 | segment 25

Well, I don't think there's any reason why demand would pull back. Demand might shift from suburban to urban a little bit as business travel starts to reignite. I've been thrilled with the recovery in the last six to seven weeks in fine dining. I was surprised how resilient the business was in suburbia through the pandemic. You know, we've still got seven or eight, you know, really large restaurants in what I would call the heavy urban core that are starting to come back slowly. But overall, I think this business is doing really, really well. And, you know, the one business that started to come back in the last couple of weeks was Season 52, which was hit pretty hard when you think about who their consumer was. And so, you know, upscale fine dining is performing well above where we thought it would be, and it's coming back very quickly as we get our three major restaurants in New York City back up and running in downtown Boston and downtown D.C. Those five restaurants are core to what we do, and they're starting to come back quickly.

Jun 24, 2021 / receipt, needs a key / Gene, CEO | earnings call 2021-06-24 | transcript fab94c62-36cd-4d65-97b2-dd2e7f4affa2 | chars 50544-51593 | segment 53

We didn't have, you know, the level of - Travel was a lot less.

Jun 24, 2021 / receipt, needs a key / Chris O'Cole, other | earnings call 2021-06-24 | transcript fab94c62-36cd-4d65-97b2-dd2e7f4affa2 | chars 41843-41906 | segment 44

As we move beyond the fourth quarter, there are additional costs such as training, travel, growth costs, incremental marketing, and other investments that we expect will need to come back into the P&L.

Mar 25, 2021 / receipt, needs a key / Gene Lee, CEO | earnings call 2021-03-25 | transcript 4befb213-4e04-4bda-9ea4-2cb6d4fd7f9a | chars 17091-17292 | segment 17

With dining room closures increasing, we are focusing on our playbook of expense management and off-premise sales.

Dec 18, 2020 / receipt, needs a key / Gene Lee, CEO | earnings call 2020-12-18 | transcript d12fac3b-ade0-4986-a80e-5a8b69b899de | chars 13403-13517 | segment 13

Current dining room closures, capacity restrictions, and reductions in travel will exacerbate our same restaurant sales comparison to last year due to the higher sales, seasonal sales from last year.

Dec 18, 2020 / receipt, needs a key / Gene Lee, CEO | earnings call 2020-12-18 | transcript d12fac3b-ade0-4986-a80e-5a8b69b899de | chars 12656-12855 | segment 12

But we've also had some savings in G&A because of reduced travel and other things, you know, no general manager conference and those kind of things.

Dec 18, 2020 / receipt, needs a key / Gene Lee, CEO | earnings call 2020-12-18 | transcript d12fac3b-ade0-4986-a80e-5a8b69b899de | chars 31676-31824 | segment 31

And we would expect G&A to start coming back up as we start getting travel, et cetera.

Sep 24, 2020 / receipt, needs a key / Gene Lee, CEO | earnings call 2020-09-24 | transcript db9a0f66-ade8-4b9a-ab01-0254c7a682ab | chars 26114-26200 | segment 26

We've cut all travel.

Mar 19, 2020 / receipt, needs a key / John, CFO | earnings call 2020-03-19 | transcript 04193f89-3e15-4610-81ac-b8c5afe9e4cb | chars 25902-25923 | segment 26