Mr. Lee: Darden Restaurants is a company that has a long history. Bill Darden founded Darden Restaurants some 65 years ago this fall. We really got our start into national expansion across the country with Red Lobster in 1968. General Mills bought the company in 1970, we expanded with Red Lobster and then later with Olive Garden. And then we spun out from General Mills in 1995, and we've been a free standing, independent company since that time on the public market. And we've had quite a good performance record.
TWST: Can you expand on the breadth of offerings you have today and
where you're located predominantly?
Mr. Lee: Currently, we have Red Lobster, the largest of our companies,
with 631 restaurants across the United States, including Hawaii. The
only state we're not operating in is Alaska. And Olive Garden is a
national company as well with 482 restaurants. We're fortunate to be the
only casual dining restaurant company that has two large, exciting
operating companies like Red Lobster and Olive Garden that are
approximately $2 billion in annual sales each. Red Lobster is a little
over $2 billion, Olive Garden just a little under. In addition to that,
we have two emerging companies, which are Smokey Bones and Bahama
Breeze. These are very exciting new companies we will be taking national
over the next 10 years.
Tickers included in this excerpt: DRI
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