Cke Restaurants, Inc. Donates $1 Million To Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Rebuilding Effort

Donation Marks Largest Corporate Pledge for Campaign to Date

(Friday, May 11, 2007) - CKE Restaurants,
Inc. (NYSE: CKR) has committed $1 million to The Campaign for Cottage Health
System, a program supporting rebuilding efforts for Santa Barbara Cottage
Hospital. The hospital serves patients along the south and central coasts of
California, and is the largest healthcare facility between Los Angeles and San
Francisco. The rebuilding effort includes consolidation of the Cottage
Children's Hospital service facilities, including state-of-the-art pediatric
and neonatal intensive care services; an air ambulance helipad for emergency
and trauma patients; robotic surgical equipment; the latest generation of CT
and MRI scanners; as well as improvement to its structures, including the
expansion and addition of surgical operating suites; a doubling in square
footage of the current ED/Trauma Center; and all-private patient rooms, all
located within a "healing environment" that doubles the green space of the
hospital grounds and provides a place for families of patients to come
together.
CKE's gift is the largest corporate pledge that the Cottage Hospital
campaign has received so far.
"An undertaking as huge as building a new hospital takes the support of
the entire community, including individuals, foundations and businesses," said
Ron Werft, president and chief executive officer of Cottage Health System.
"CKE Restaurants has a long-standing tradition of investing back in the
communities in which they do business. This generous gift to Cottage is a
long-term investment in the provision of quality health care for residents on
the South Coast and for future generations to come."
CKE president and chief executive office Andrew F. Puzder agreed, saying,
"As an international organization headquartered in California's central coast,
we are proud to support Cottage Health System in its efforts to rebuild Santa
Barbara Cottage Hospital." He continued, "Our founder, Carl N. Karcher,
always emphasized the importance of giving back to the community. In
continuation of his legacy and on behalf of CKE Restaurants, Inc., its
shareholders and employees, I am very proud that we were able to help make the
rebuilding of Cottage Hospital a reality.
"Since I began as president and CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc., the Company
has committed itself to supporting hospitals and health centers that treat,
heal, and rehabilitate injured and ill children. The campaign to rebuild
Cottage Hospital has shown sincere commitment to this end, and I am therefore
particularly proud of our association with this project, and the care and
comfort it will provide the parents and children in our community for many
years to come."
CKE's history of supporting local community hospitals and health centers
dates back to 1999, when subsidiary restaurant chain Hardee's Food Systems,
Inc. donated $1 million to Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center in Durham,
N.C. The donation supported the McGovern-Davison Children's Health Center
(CHC), which focuses on outpatient services for more than one hundred
fifty-thousand critically ill children per year.
In 2004, CKE and Hardee's committed $200,000 to St. Louis-based Ranken
Jordan, a pediatric specialty hospital in St. Louis. Ranken Jordan
specializes in rehabilitation for children who are seriously ill or have been
critically injured.
About CKE Restaurants, Inc.
As of the fourth fiscal quarter ended Jan. 29, 2007, CKE Restaurants,
Inc., through its subsidiaries, had a total of 3,105 franchised or company-
operated restaurants in 43 states and in 13 countries, including 1,087 Carl's
Jr.(R) restaurants, 1,906 Hardee's(R) restaurants and 96 La Salsa Fresh
Mexican Grill(R) restaurants.
For more information please visit www.ckr.com
About Cottage Health System
The not-for-profit Cottage Health System, the parent organization of Santa
Barbara Cottage Hospital and its associated Cottage Children's Hospital, Santa
Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital, and Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, is guided by
a volunteer board of directors from the greater Santa Barbara community. Last
year, the hospitals provided inpatient care for 21,000 people, treated 62,000
patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,700
newborns. With a staff of more than 2,500, Cottage is the largest private
employer in the County.
SOURCE CKE Restaurants, Inc.
05/11/2007
/CONTACT: Anne Hallock, Manager, Public Relations, CKE Restaurants, Inc.,
+1-805-745-7741, ahallock@ckr.com/
/Web site: http://www.ckr.com /
(CKR)

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