Red Lobster
location in Chattanooga, Tennessee | |
| Red Lobster | |
| Formerly | Red Lobster Hospitality, LLC |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Genre | Casual dining |
| Founded | January 18, 1968 Lakeland, Florida, US |
| Founders | Bill Darden Charley Woodsby |
| Headquarters | Orlando, Florida, US |
Number of locations | 545 (2025) |
Area served | |
Key people | Damola Adamolekun (CEO) |
| Products | |
| Revenue | US$2.6 billion (2018) |
Number of employees | 55,000 |
| Parent | Darden Restaurants/General Mills Restaurants (1970–2014) Golden Gate Capital (2014–2020) Thai Union Group (2020–2024) RL Investor Holdings (2024–present) |
| Website | RedLobster.com |
| Footnotes / references | |
RL Investor Holdings LLC doing business as Red Lobster, (formerly Red Lobster Hospitality, LLC) is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company has operations across most of the United States (including Puerto Rico), and Canada, as well as in Ecuador, Japan, Mexico, and Thailand. Golden Gate Capital was Red Lobster's parent company after it was acquired from Darden Restaurants on July 28, 2014. Seafood supplier Thai Union acquired a 25% stake in the company in 2016 for a reported $575 million and in 2020 purchased the remaining portion from GGC.
In May 2024, Red Lobster closed at least 99 of its restaurants and then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after securing over $100 million in financing commitments from its lenders. The company has also entered a stalking horse agreement to sell itself and have its lenders manage it.