--- ticker: DRI company: Darden Restaurants Inc. filing_type: 10-K year_current: 2023 year_prior: 2022 risks_added: 1 risks_removed: 1 risks_modified: 0 risks_unchanged: 32 source: SEC EDGAR url: https://riskdiff.com/dri/2023-vs-2022/ markdown_url: https://riskdiff.com/dri/2023-vs-2022/index.md generated: 2026-05-11 --- # Darden Restaurants Inc.: 10-K Risk Factor Changes 2023 vs 2022 > Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) > Generated: 2026-05-11 > All data extracted directly from official filings. No hallucinated content. > **[AI-Generated Summary]** The paragraph below was produced by a language > model and may contain errors. All other content on this page is deterministically > extracted from the original SEC filing. > Darden Restaurants removed its COVID-19 pandemic risk disclosure in 2023, reflecting the stabilization of business operations post-pandemic. The company added a new risk factor specific to the integration of Ruth's Chris Steak House, its major acquisition, focusing on execution risks related to achieving projected sales growth and cost synergies. The stability of the remaining 32 risk factors indicates that Darden's core operational and market risks remained relatively consistent year-over-year. --- ## Summary | Status | Count | |--------|-------| | New risks added | 1 | | Risks removed | 1 | | Risks modified | 0 | | Unchanged | 32 | --- ## New in Current Filing: The inability to successfully integrate Ruth's Chris Steak House into our business could harm our ability to achieve the sales growth, cost savings and other benefits we expect to be able to realize in the Ruth's Chris Steak House operations. On June 14, 2023, we completed our acquisition of Ruth's, owner, operator and franchisor of Ruth's Chris Steak House restaurants. Our integration of the Ruth's Chris Steak House business into our operations is a complex and time-consuming process that may not be successful. The primary areas of focus for successfully combining the business of Ruth's Chris Steak House with our operations may include, among others: retaining and integrating management and other key employees and franchisees; integrating information, communications and other systems; and managing the growth of the combined company. Even if we successfully integrate the business of Ruth's Chris Steak House into our operations, there can be no assurance that we will realize the anticipated benefits. We acquired Ruth's Chris Steak House with the expectation that the acquisition would result in various benefits for the combined company including, among others, business and growth opportunities and significant synergies from increased efficiency in purchasing, distribution and other restaurant and corporate support. Increased competition and/or deterioration in business conditions may limit our ability to expand this business. As such, we may not be able to realize the synergies, goodwill, business opportunities and growth prospects anticipated in connection with the acquisition. --- ## No Match in Current: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted and may continue to disrupt our business and the global economy, which has affected and could continue to materially affect our operations, financial condition and results of operations. *This section from the 2022 filing does not have a high-confidence textual match in 2023. It may have been removed, merged, or substantially reworded.* The COVID-19 pandemic, federal, state and local government responses to COVID-19 and our Company's responses to the outbreak have all disrupted and may continue to disrupt our business. In the United States over the course of fiscal 2021, state and local governments imposed a variety of restrictions on people and businesses and public health authorities offered regular guidance on health and safety. Once COVID-19 vaccines were approved and moved into wider distribution in the United States in early 2021, public health conditions improved and almost all of the COVID-19 restrictions on businesses eased. During fiscal 2022, increases in the numbers of cases of COVID-19 throughout the United States including the Omicron variant which significantly impacted our restaurants in the third quarter, mostly in January 2022, subjected some of our restaurants to other COVID-19-related restrictions such as mask and/or vaccine requirements for team members, guests or both. Exclusions and quarantines of restaurant team members or groups thereof disrupt an individual restaurant's operations and often come with little or no notice to the local restaurant management. During fiscal 2022, along with COVID-19, our operating results were impacted by geopolitical and other macroeconomic events, leading to higher than usual inflation on wages and other cost of goods sold. These events further impacted the availability of team members needed to staff our restaurants and caused additional disruptions in our product supply chain. The ongoing effects of COVID-19 and its variants, along with other geopolitical and macroeconomic events could lead to future capacity restrictions, mask and vaccination mandates, wage inflation, staffing challenges, product cost inflation and disruptions in the supply chain that impact our restaurants' ability to obtain the products needed to support their operations. --- *Data sourced from SEC EDGAR. Last updated 2026-05-11.*