We are extremely proud of the progress we have made, and continue to make, in promoting supplier diversity in the U.S. Led by our Unified FoodService Purchasing Co-op (UFPC) partners and our Support Educate Encourage Diversity (SEED) Team, our associate network focuses on building the impact of minority- and women-owned enterprises in vital areas of our business. In 2006, we asked our key suppliers to track and report their purchasing from minority-owned businesses. This resulted in an increase in our supplier diversity awareness and output to more than eight percent of our overall purchasing expenditures. Today we are on track to meet our goal of directing 10 percent of our purchasing expenditures to minority or women-owned businesses by the year 2010.

We continue to increase our efforts in the recruitment of minority franchisees. We are playing a leadership role in the development and launch of the International Franchise Association's MinorityFran Program. MinorityFran is an initiative in partnership with community leaders such as the National Urban League, National Council of LaRaza, the Association of Small Business Development Centers, and the US Pan-Asian American Chamber of Commerce, that provides a one-stop point of access for minority prospects who are exploring franchise opportunities.

We continue to strengthen our relationship with these and other minority organizations, and we plan to sponsor an NAACP executive-level leadership forum in 2008 to further recruit qualified minority franchise candidates.