"We are delighted by the continued strong sales growththat OliveGarden delivered during fiscal 2005," saysLinda Dimopoulus, CFO ofDarden Restaurants Inc.,which owns and operates the Olive Gardenchain. Olive Garden's fourth quarter sales spiked 5.6% to$626.9million. And, for the entire year, the chainposted record totalsales of $2.4 billion, up 8.5%.During the year, 20 new Olive Gardenrestaurantsopened, which helped sales.

Darden executives say that Olive Garden's strong salesperformance has favorably impacted the entire company. "Inparticular, Olive Garden's 43rd quarter of same-restaurant salesincreased helped generate double-digit growth in total sales andoperating profit," says Andrew Madsen, president and COO ofDarden.

For the forth quarter fiscal 2005, the restaurantoperator postednet earnings of $84 million or 52cents per diluted share – anincrease of 63% over thesame period last year. On a company-widebasis, salesincreased 2.6% to $1.4 billion.