Darden Restaurants -- CEO Interview.

Publication: Finance Wire

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Voxant Inc.

Original Source: CNBC/DOW JONES BUSINESS VIDEO

MELISSA FRANCIS, CNBC ANCHOR: Darden Restaurants posting strong first quarter results. The company is seeing net income rise more than 20 percent to $85.5 million or 53 cents a share. That beat analyst expectations by a penny. Revenues rising 10 percent to $1.4 billion thanks to strong sales at both its Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains. For his outlook, we turn to Clarence Otis, CEO of Darden Restaurants. He joins us now from Orlando.

Thanks so much for joining us this morning, Mr. Otis.

CLARENCE OTIS, CEO, DARDEN RESTAURANTS: Thank you for having me.

FRANCIS: What do you attribute the strong quarter to? Did you come up with more -- or open more stores for Red Lobster? Is that why we`re seeing some strength there?

OTIS: No. It`s really at Red Lobster and Olive Garden....

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