OLIVE GARDEN Site Selection Criteria - Darden Restaurants

OLIVE GARDEN CORPORATE FACT SHEETOlive Garden is committed to its purpose of Hospitaliano! – providing 100 percent guest delight throughthe genuine Italian dining experience. This passion is continuing to advance Olive Garden’s leadershipposition in the highly competitive, full‐service Italian segment of the casual dining industry.BACKGROUND:Founded in 1982, Olive Garden is owned by Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI), the world’s largestcompany‐owned and operated full‐service restaurant company. Olive Garden is the leading restaurantin the Italian dining segment with more than 700 restaurants, more than 86, 000 employees and morethan $3 billion in annual sales.GUEST EXPERIENCE:At Olive Garden, “When you’re here, you’re family,” is more than a tag line. Olive Garden teammembers, like the Italians, have a passion for sharing genuine hospitality with family and friends. Therestaurant delights more than 3.3 million guests every week with fresh, simple and delicious Italianfood; award‐winning wine and beverage choices; service in a comfortable home‐like Italian setting; andthe experience of being treated like family.EMPLOYEE CULTURE:Olive Garden attributes much of its success to its commitment to training and developing restaurantteam members with initiatives, such as weeklong manager visits to Olive Garden’s Culinary Institute ofTuscany in Italy and more than 500,000 training hours invested in wine education.AWARDS:Olive Garden’s award‐winning culinary, beverage and training teams have garnered national recognitionfor their innovation, program execution and industry leadership from top trade publications and foodservice organizations.Page #1 Last Updated March 2011