June 9, 2008 4:28PM

Brinkers Restaurant Throws in the Kitchen Sink

By Elizabeth MacDonald

Usually you’ll see disclosures in filings from retail chains or restaurant chains hurt by an economic down turn that consumers are staying away to save money due to high fuel costs or increasing inflation eating into their discretionary income.But for one restaurant chain, those problems are not the only reason behind its challenging times.

Brinker International (EAT), which runs “casual dining” chains, cited high gas prices and a downbeat outlook on consumer confidence as the reason why diners are not eating out at Brinker restaurants such as Chili’s, On the Border or Macaroni Grill chain (which it’s trying to sell).

But Brinker filed an announcement of a quarterly dividend that cited a whole range of other reasons absent the Black Plague–though it did cite “epidemics or pandemics”– that it said could hurt future profits. Check out its disclosure below, it included everything under the sun. Is Brinker more scared than usual?

Here’s what it wrote, see for yourself at

http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/703351/000110465908038230/a08-16013_1ex99.htm

Future profits could be “affected by general business and economic conditions, the impact of competition, the impact of acquisitions and divestitures and other strategic transactions, the seasonality of the company’s business, adverse weather conditions, future commodity prices, fuel and utility costs and availability, terrorists acts, consumer perception of food safety, changes in consumer taste and behavior, health epidemics or pandemics, changes in demographic trends, availability of employees, unfavorable publicity, the company’s ability to meet its growth plan, acts of God, governmental regulations, and inflation.”