Business Description

Darden Restaurants, Inc. is the largest publicly traded casual dining restaurant company in the world, based on market share and revenues from companyowned restaurants. We serve more than 300 million meals annually at our 1,427 restaurants in 49 states and Canada. Our four distinct restaurant brands together generated sales of $5.7 billion in fiscal 2006. Red Lobster® and Olive Garden®, our flagship brands, are the market share leaders in their casual dining segments. Each produced sales of $2.6 billion in fiscal 2006, making Darden the only casual dining restaurant company with two restaurant brands of this scale. Our emerging brands are Bahama Breeze® and Smokey Bones Barbeque & Grill®, and our newest concept, Seasons 52®, is in the test phase. Based in Orlando, Florida, we employ nearly 160,000 people, and our Company trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DRI.