Darden Restaurants : FY21 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call Presentation

EARNINGS CALL

FISCAL 2021: FOURTH QUARTER RESULTS

JUNE 24, 2021

Disclaimer/Non-GAAP Information

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The following slides are part of a presentation by Darden Restaurants, Inc. (the "Company") and are intended to be viewed as part of that presentation (the "Presentation"). No

representation is made that the Presentation is complete.

Forward-looking statements in this communication regarding our expected earnings performance and all other statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation statements concerning our future economic performance, are made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such statements are first made, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after such date. We wish to caution investors not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ from those anticipated in the statements. The most significant of these uncertainties are described in Darden's Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K reports. These risks and uncertainties include the impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on our business and the response of governments and of our Company to the outbreak, health concerns including food-related pandemics or outbreaks of flu or other viruses, technology failures including failure to maintain a secure cyber network, food safety and food-borne illness concerns, the inability to hire, train, reward and retain restaurant team members, a failure to develop and recruit effective leaders, risks relating to public policy changes and federal, state and local regulation of our business, litigation, unfavorable publicity, an inability or failure to manage the accelerated impact of social media, long-term and non-cancelable property leases, labor and insurance costs, failure to execute a business continuity plan following a disaster, intense competition, changing consumer preferences, failure to drive profitable sales growth, a lack of availability of suitable locations for new restaurants, higher-than-anticipated costs to open, close, relocate or remodel restaurants, a failure to execute innovative marketing tactics, a failure to address cost pressures, shortages or interruptions in the delivery of food and other products and services, adverse weather conditions and natural disasters, volatility in the market value of derivatives, volatility leading to the inability to hedge equity compensation market exposure, economic factors specific to the restaurant industry and general macroeconomic factors including interest rates, disruptions in the financial markets, risks of doing business with franchisees, licensees and vendors in foreign markets, failure to protect our intellectual property, impairment in the carrying value of our goodwill or other intangible assets, failure of our internal controls over financial reporting and other factors and uncertainties discussed from time to time in reports filed by Darden with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The information in this communication includes financial information determined by methods other than in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP"), such as adjusted diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations free cash flow and EBITDA. The Company's management uses these non- GAAP measures in its analysis of the Company's performance. The Company believes that the presentation of certain non-GAAP measures provides useful supplemental information

that is essential to a proper understanding of the operating results of the Company's businesses. These non-GAAP disclosures should not be viewed as a substitute for operating

results determined in accordance with GAAP, nor are they necessarily comparable to non-GAAP performance measures that may be presented by other companies. Reconciliations of

these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are included under "Additional Information" in this presentation.

2

Sizing the Restaurant Industry

		($ in billions)
	$28
			$23
$222	$194
	$189	$166
	$48
		$39
	$57
		$56

$238

$232

FY19

FY20

Fine Dining

Casual Dining

Midscale

Fast Casual

QSR

Source: Technomic, twelve months ended 5/26/2019 and 5/30/2020, respectively

3

Strategic Investments

Food Quality

Team Members

Technology

4

Thank You To Our Team Members

5