Darden Restaurants
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : DRI S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Predecessor | Green Frog Restaurant (1938-1967) Red Lobster Inns of America (1968-70) General Mills Restaurants (1970-95) |
| Founded | First Restaurant (The Green Frog) opened in 1938 in Waycross, GA. |
| Founder | Bill Darden |
| Headquarters | 1000 Darden Center Drive Orlando, Florida, U.S. 32837 |
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Number of locations
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More than 1,500 - 2015 Annual Report |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Eugene Lee (President & Chief Executive Officer) Jeffrey Smith (Chairman) |
| Services | Foodservice |
| Revenue |
 US$ $7.999 billion(FY May 2012) |
 US$ 638.0 million(FY 2012) |
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US$ 475.5 million |
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| Total assets |
US$ 5.944 billion (FY 2012) |
| Total equity |
US$ 1.842 billion (FY 2012) |
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Number of employees
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200,000 |
| Website | darden |
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Footnotes / references |
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Darden Restaurants, Inc. is an American multi-brand restaurant operator headquartered in Orlando. The firm owns seven casual dining restaurant chains: Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, Eddie V's Prime Seafood, The Capital Grille and Yard House. Until July 28, 2014, Darden also owned Red Lobster. Darden has more than 1,500 restaurant locations and more than 150,000 employees, making it the world's largest full-service restaurant company. As of 2012, Darden is the only Fortune 500 company with its corporate headquarters in Greater Orlando.
What would come to be known as Darden Restaurants, began when William (Bill) Darden, age 19 opened his first restaurant, The Green Frog, in Waycross, Georgia, in 1938. He later founded the Red Lobster Inns of America and opened the first Red Lobster restaurant in Lakeland, Florida, in 1968. Darden chose Lakeland because he wished to see how a seafood restaurant would fare in a non-coastal region, and Lakeland was the innermost city in Florida. The initial Red Lobster franchise was applauded by diners and critics alike. The store became successful and by 1970 had expanded to three locations in the state with two more under construction. While the locations were profitable, the company lacked the resources to expand further, so Darden sold the company to food giant General Mills that year.
General Mills upgraded the chain to a more casual dining/family fare oriented format, opened a new company headquarters in Orlando and retained Darden as company manager. In 1975, when Darden was promoted to Vice President of General Mills, Joseph (Joe) R. Lee, the company's first restaurant manager, was promoted as President of Red Lobster. Under General Mills ownership, Red Lobster expanded into a chain of almost 400 locations by 1985. The company underwent several restructurings and transformed itself from an inexpensive fast-food seller into a chain of casual dining seafood restaurants by 1988.
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