Full Transcript of Darden Restaurants’ F2Q06 (Qtr Ending Nov 27, 2005) Conference Call — Prepared Remarks (DRI)

Here’s the entire text of the prepared remarks from Darden Restaurants’ (ticker: DRI) fiscal Q2 2006 conference call. The Q&A is here. We recognize that this transcript may contain inaccuracies - if you find any, please post a comment below and we’ll incorporate your corrections. And please note: this conference call transcript is a Seeking Alpha product, so feel free to link to it but reproduction is not permitted without the explicit permission of Seeking Alpha.

Executives:

Matthew Stroud, Vice President, Investor Relations
Linda Dimopoulos, SVP and Chief Financial Officer
Andrew Madsen, President and Chief Operating Officer
Clarence Otis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Analysts:

David Palmer, UBS
Mark Kalinowski, Buckingham Research
Robert Derrington, Morgan Keegan
John Glass, CIBC World Markets
Steven Kron, Goldman Sachs
Jason Whitmer, FTN Midwest
Mark Wiltamuth, Morgan Stanley
Jeffrey Omohundro, Wachovia
Michael Smith, Oppenheimer
Lawrence Miller, Prudential
Joseph Buckley, Bear Stearns
Andrew Barish, Banc of America
John Ivankoe, JP Morgan
Jeffrey Bernstein, Lehman Brothers
Jonathan Waite, KeyBanc Capital Markets

Presentation

Operator

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by and welcome to Darden Restaurant Second Quarter Earnings Release Conference Call. At this time all lines are in the listen only mode. Later there will be an opportunity for your question. Instructions will be given at that time. If you should require assistance during the conference press “*