OUR STRATEGIC BUILDING BLOCKS A critical part of Darden’s foundation is our strategic framework, which  consists of four strategic imperatives and two strategic enablers. For the  past two years, we have featured one of the Company’s strategic building  blocks in our annual report to shareholders . We began with  Culinary and  Beverage Excellence , which highlighted our commitment to not only contin- ually improving and innovating in this critically important part of our business,  but also to redefining culinary and beverage excellence in casual dining.  Last year, we featured  Service and Hospitality Excellence , underscoring  our fundamental recognition that the restaurant business is about creating  great experiences, not just great menu offerings. Our goal is to establish  and sustain the industry’s very highest service and hospitality standards as  defined by casual dining guests. This year we focus on a third strategic  imperative,  Leadership Excellence.  To achieve our ultimate goal – to be  the best in casual dining now and for generations – we must have leaders  throughout the Company who inspire in their teams a great passion and  enthusiasm for people, restaurants and dining. These strategic imperatives are joined by a fourth –  Brand Building Excellence  – and all are supported by our strategic enablers – diversity excellence and pro- cess and technology excellence. And our entire strategic framework rests  on our core values – Integrity and Fairness, Respect and Caring, Diversity,  Always Learning/AlwaysTeaching, Being “of Service,”Teamwork, and  Excellence. To learn more about our strategies and values, we encourage  you to visit www.darden.com. CONTENTS Letter to Shareholders  2 Leadership Defined  5-16 Financial Review  17 Shareholder Information  52 Board of Directors  53