About the Company
Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, in the US, Darden Restaurants, Inc. is an American multi-brand restaurant operator. It owns six casual dining restaurant chains and two fine-dining ones. Darden is one of the largest full-service restaurant companies in the world. It operates in more than 1,500 locations and employs over 1,50,000 employees. The shares of this company are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “DRI”. Yard House, Bahama Breeze and Olive Garden are some of its notable brands. In 1938, William Darden opened a restaurant named The Green Frog which later on became Darden Restaurants.
In 1995, DRI was listed on NYSE, and its shares opened at $10.75. The following year, it tested a new Caribbean themed concept which featured food and drinks from the Caribbean islands. In 1999, DRI opened Smokey Bones BBQ Sports bar in Orlando which featured an Appalachian mountain-lodge theme and served barbeque and other related food items.
Furthermore, four years later, DRI opened Seasons 52 restaurants in the markets of Atlanta and Florida with an aim to provide the customers with an opportunity to indulge in the grill and wine experience. In August 2007, Darden Restaurants, Inc. acquired one of their Atlanta-based rivals, Rare Hospitality for approximately $1.4 billion and gained access to two of their food chains - LongHorn Steakhouse and The Capital Grille.
Next year, DRI sold its Smokey Bones chain to an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. for an estimated $80 million. In 2017, Darden announced that it had acquired Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen for $780 million which did not involve any debt.
In 2018, the CEO of DRI, Gene Lee, received the Gold Plate award after being declared the best foodservice operator by the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association. Darden occupies the 393rd position on the list of Fortune 500 companies.;
Organisation | Darden Restaurants Inc |
Industry | Restaurants |
HeadQuarters | Orlando, FL |