{"id":98772,"date":"2025-12-29T14:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/98772\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T14:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:24:07","slug":"tampa-bays-top-companies-no-4-bloomin-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/98772\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay\u2019s Top Companies No. 4: Bloomin’ Brands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bloomin\u2019 Brands<\/a>, the Tampa-based restaurant company behind Outback Steakhouse<\/a>, Carrabba\u2019s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming\u2019s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar,<\/a> reported mixed third-quarter results while rolling out a companywide turnaround strategy focused on long-term stability.<\/p>\n

The company posted $928.8M in Q3 revenue, up 2.1% from a year earlier, driven by higher U.S. comparable sales and the net impact of restaurant<\/a> openings and closures. <\/p>\n

READ: TAMPA BAY\u2019S TOP COMPANY<\/a><\/p>\n

All four brands delivered positive comparable store sales growth<\/a> in the quarter, marking the first time since early 2023.<\/p>\n

CEO Mike Spanos said the results reflect improving execution across the portfolio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have great momentum in our business as demonstrated by our third quarter results,\u201d Spanos said. \u201cConsistency in food quality and the guest experience is the foundation of our turnaround.\u201d<\/p>\n

Profitability pressure remains<\/p>\n

Despite higher revenue, profitability was pressured by rising costs and restaurant<\/a> closures.<\/p>\n

Bloomin\u2019 Brands reported a GAAP operating loss margin of 3.9%, compared with a 0.9% operating margin in Q3 2024. <\/p>\n

Adjusted operating income margin declined to 0.8%, down from 2.3% a year ago.<\/p>\n

Restaurant-level operating margin fell to 9.2%, driven by higher labor, commodity and insurance costs, along with an unfavorable product mix. Pricing increases and cost-saving initiatives partially offset those pressures.<\/p>\n

READ: Tampa Bay\u2019s Top Companies No. 1: Jabil<\/a><\/p>\n

The company reported a diluted loss per share of $0.54, compared with a loss of $0.01 in the prior-year quarter. On an adjusted basis, diluted loss per share was $0.03, down from adjusted earnings of $0.11 last year.<\/p>\n

A significant portion of the quarter\u2019s losses stemmed from $33.2M in impairment and closure charges, tied to underperforming locations.<\/p>\n

Turnaround strategy centers on Outback Steakhouse<\/p>\n

Bloomin\u2019 Brands\u2019 turnaround strategy places a clear emphasis on Outback Steakhouse, its largest and most recognizable brand.<\/p>\n

The plan is built around four core priorities:<\/p>\n

Improving the dine-in experience through food quality and service consistency<\/p>\n

Strengthening brand relevance to attract new guests and increase visit frequency<\/p>\n

Reinvesting in people and culture to support frontline execution<\/p>\n

Refreshing restaurants to better reflect brand standards<\/p>\n

To fund these initiatives, the company is reallocating capital away from shareholder payouts and toward operations and debt reduction.<\/p>\n

READ: Tampa Bay\u2019s Top Companies No. 2: Raymond James<\/a><\/p>\n

As part of that shift, the board suspended the dividend in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe our strategic plan will drive long-term, sustainable and profitable growth,\u201d Spanos said.<\/p>\n

Restaurant closures and portfolio adjustments<\/p>\n

During the quarter, Bloomin\u2019 Brands closed 21 U.S. restaurants and chose not to renew leases on 22 additional locations, most of which will expire over the next four years.<\/p>\n

The closures were completed in October. The company expects to record an additional $5M to $7M in severance and closure costs in Q4.<\/p>\n

READ: Tampa Bay\u2019s Top Companies No. 3: The Mosaic Company<\/a><\/p>\n

Systemwide, Bloomin\u2019 Brands operated 1,483 restaurants at the end of Q3, including 987 company-owned locations and 496 franchised restaurants across the U.S. and international markets.<\/p>\n

Brand-by-brand performance<\/p>\n

U.S. comparable sales for the quarter showed modest but broad-based gains:<\/p>\n

Outback Steakhouse: up 0.4%<\/p>\n

Carrabba\u2019s Italian Grill: up 4.1%<\/p>\n

Bonefish Grill: up 0.8%<\/p>\n

Fleming\u2019s Prime Steakhouse: up 1.2%<\/p>\n

Combined U.S. comparable sales increased 1.2%.<\/p>\n

READ: Tampa Bay\u2019s Top Companies No. 4: Publix<\/a><\/p>\n

Traffic trends remain uneven, but higher average check sizes helped offset softer guest counts at several brands.<\/p>\n

Future outlook <\/p>\n

Bloomin\u2019 Brands reaffirmed most of its full-year guidance and provided updated expectations:<\/p>\n

Full-year U.S. comparable sales: flat to up 0.5%<\/p>\n

Adjusted EPS: $1.10 to $1.15<\/p>\n

Labor inflation: approximately 3.5%<\/p>\n

For the fourth quarter, the company expects U.S. comparable sales growth of\u00a00.5% to 1.5%, with adjusted EPS of $0.23 to $0.28.<\/p>\n

A Tampa company recalibrates<\/p>\n

Headquartered in Tampa, Bloomin\u2019 Brands remains one of the region\u2019s most visible public companies, employing thousands across Florida and beyond. <\/p>\n

While near-term financial pressure remains, leadership is betting that operational discipline and reinvestment will stabilize performance.<\/p>\n

The company will discuss results and strategy further during its earnings call later today.<\/p>\n

For Tampa\u2019s business community, the message is clear: this is a reset year, not a retreat.<\/p>\n

To read Bloomin\u2019 Brands full earnings report, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Stay Informed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bloomin\u2019 Brands, the Tampa-based restaurant company behind Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba\u2019s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming\u2019s Prime Steakhouse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[48450,558,24110,3090,178,48451,7269,3450,687,3047,202,204,203,199,201,200,52037,135,1703,7682,278],"class_list":["post-98772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-biggest-companies-in-tampa-bay","tag-business","tag-business-growth","tag-dining","tag-economic-growth","tag-fortune-500-companies-in-tampa","tag-leadership","tag-management","tag-restaurants","tag-retail","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-strategy","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-business","tag-tampa-bay-hospitality","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}