For additional Net Results National restaurant and retail chains seem to get built and torn down on a weekly basis in most towns, masking a lengthy process in which chain operators choose store locations. Now, the pace could quicken further for giants such as Darden Restaurants Inc., which owns the Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants. Darden is six months into a project that uses an online analyzer to evaluate properties for construction.
Darden executives go further.
It immediately took out the bottleneck. While Darden officials wouldn't tie Site Analyzer to financial performance, Darden's profits are rising despite the economic downturn. Now we're going to build on it. The length of the site selection process varies by location and restaurant type, analysts said, so it's difficult to measure how much time Site Analyzer or a similar tool can take out of the siting process. Still, Thomas said the tool can take two weeks out of a typical site research process.