During our first fiscal quarter, industry same restaurant sales decreased 26%.
The progress we made in these areas combined with our operating results, gave us the confidence to repay the $270 million term loan and reinstate a quarterly dividend.
At the end of August, we had completed installation in just over 500 restaurants in our total portfolio.
For our three largest brands combined, more than 50% of our off-premise sales during the quarter were fully digital transactions where guest ordered and paid online.
The results of all these efforts to transform our business model can be seen in the fact that we generated adjusted EBITDA of $185 million for the quarter.
Olive Garden delivered strong average weekly sales per restaurant of $70,000 while significantly strengthening our business model, resulting in higher segment profit margin than last year.
Olive Garden same-restaurant sales for the quarter declined 28.2%, 220 basis points below the industry benchmark.
In fact, restaurants that had some level of dining room capacity for the entire quarter averaged more than $75,000 in weekly sales, retaining nearly 80% of their last year's sales.
Additionally, off-premise continue to see strong growth with off-premise sales increasing 123% in the quarter, representing 45% of total sales.
Same-restaurant sales declined 18.1%, outperforming the industry benchmark by 790 basis points.
Off-premise sales grew by more than 240%, representing 28% of total sales.
And lastly, our other business segment also delivered strong operational improvement with segment profit margin of 12.8%.
This was only 130 basis points below last year despite a 39% decline in same-restaurant sales.
For the quarter, total sales were $1.5 billion, a decrease of 28.4%.
Same-restaurant sales decreased 29%.
Adjusted EBITDA was $185 million.
And adjusted diluted net earnings per share were $0.56.
However, beef inflation of over 7%, primarily impacting LongHorn, drove food and beverage expense 20 basis points higher than last year for the company.
Restaurant labor was 20 basis points lower than last year, with hourly labor as a percent of sales improving by over 350 basis points, driven by operational simplifications.
Restaurant expense, including $10 million of business interruption insurance proceeds related to COVID-19 claims submitted in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020.
Excluding this benefit, we reduced restaurant expense per operating week by over 20% this quarter.
For marketing, we lowered absolute spending by over $40 million, bringing marketing as a percent of sales to 1.9%, 130 basis points less than last year.
As a result, restaurant-level EBITDA margin was 17.8%, 20 basis points below last year, but particularly strong given the sales decline of 28%.
General and administrative expenses were $10 million lower than last year as we effectively reduced expenses and rightsized our support structure.
Interest was $5 million higher than last year, mostly related to the term loan that was outstanding for the majority of the quarter.
And finally, our first quarter adjusted effective tax rate was 9%.
All of this culminated in adjusted earnings after-tax of $73 million, which excludes $48 million of performance-adjusted expenses.
Approximately $10 million of this expense is non-cash and the remaining will be cash outflows through Q2 of fiscal 2022.
This restructuring resulted in a net 11% reduction in our workforce in the restaurant support center and field operations leadership positions.
It is expected to save between $25 million and $30 million annually.
Despite a sales decline of 28%, Olive Garden increased segment profit margin by 110 basis points to 22.1%.
LongHorn Steakhouse, Fine Dining and the other business segment delivered strong positive segment profit margins of 15.1%, 11.9% and 12.8% respectively despite a significant sales decline experienced in the quarter.
In the first quarter, 68% of our restaurants operated with at least partial dining room capacity for the entire quarter.
These restaurants had average weekly sales per restaurant of $69,000 and the same-restaurant sales decline of 21.9%.
And while Olive Garden and the Fine Dining segment had fewer dining rooms opened than our average, these restaurants had the highest average weekly sales per restaurant of almost $76,000 and $90,000 respectively.
At the start of the second quarter, we had approximately 91% of our restaurants with dining rooms opened operating in at least limited capacity.
We fully repaid the $270 million term loan we took out in April.
We ended the first quarter with $655 million in cash and another $750 million available in our untapped credit facility, giving us over $1.4 million of available liquidity.
We generated over $160 million of free cash flow in the quarter and improved our adjusted debt to adjusted capital to 59% at the end of the quarter, well within our debt covenant of below 75%.
The board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share.
This dividend represents 53% of our first quarter adjusted earnings after-tax within our long-term framework for value creation.
We anticipate EBITDA between $200 million and $215 million and diluted net earnings per share between $0.65 and $0.75 on a diluted share base of 131 million shares.
Based on our strong business model enhancements, we now think we can get to our pre-COVID EBITDA dollars at approximately 90% of pre-COVID sales, while still making appropriate investments in our business.

Summary:
Olive Garden same-restaurant sales for the quarter declined 28.2%, 220 basis points below the industry benchmark.
And adjusted diluted net earnings per share were $0.56.
For marketing, we lowered absolute spending by over $40 million, bringing marketing as a percent of sales to 1.9%, 130 basis points less than last year.
We anticipate EBITDA between $200 million and $215 million and diluted net earnings per share between $0.65 and $0.75 on a diluted share base of 131 million shares.