About Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. principally engages in the operation and development of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store concept (Cracker Barrel). Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Concept The company’s 661 Cracker Barrel stores are not franchised. The company’s stores are intended to appeal to both the traveler and the local customer, and they have consistently been a consumer favorite. Store Format: The format of the company’s stores consists of a trademarked rustic old country-store design offering a full-service restaurant menu that features home-style country food and a wide variety of decorative and functional items, such as rocking chairs, holiday and seasonal gifts, toys, apparel, cookware and foods. The company’s stores have stone fireplaces and are decorated with antique-style furnishings and other authentic and nostalgic items, reminiscent of and similar to those found and sold in the past in traditional old country stores. Products: The company’s restaurants, which generated approximately 79% of its total revenue in 2023, offer home-style country cooking featuring many of its own recipes that emphasize authenticity and quality. The company’s restaurants serve breakfast, lunch and dinner daily and offer dine-in, pick-up and delivery services. The company also offers multi-serving takeout family meal baskets. Additionally, from time to time, the company features new items as off-menu specials or on test menus at certain locations to evaluate possible ways to enhance customer interest and identify potential future additions to the menu. The company offers weekday lunch specials, which include some of its favorite entrees in lunch-sized portions. The company’s menu also features weekday and weekend dinner specials that showcase a popular dinner entree. Product Development and Merchandising: The company maintains a product development department, which develops new and improved menu items either in response to shifts in customer preferences or to create customer interest. The company uses a formal development and testing process, which includes guest research and in-store market tests to ensure products brought to market have a greater likelihood of meeting its goals. The company’s merchandising department selects and develops products for its gift shop. The company focuses on driving retail sales by converting those customers who come to it for a restaurant visit. The company’s assortment includes both core and seasonal themes. The company’s seasonal themes are designed to create interest and excitement in its stores by providing its guests with additional choices that vary throughout the year. Store Management: At each store, the company’s store management typically consists of one general manager, four associate managers and one retail manager. The relative complexity of operating one of the company’s stores requires an effective management team at the individual store level. To motivate managers to improve sales and operational performance, the company maintains bonus plans designed to provide managers with incentives to meet and exceed the operational targets of their store. Each store is assigned to both a restaurant and a retail district manager who each report to a regional vice president. Purchasing and Distribution The company negotiates directly with food vendors as to specification, price and other material terms of most food purchases. The company has a contract with an unaffiliated distributor with custom distribution centers in Lebanon, Tennessee; McKinney, Texas; Gainesville, Florida; Elkton, Maryland; Kendallville, Indiana; Rock Hill, South Carolina; and Shafter, California. The company purchases the majority of its food products and restaurant supplies on a cost-plus basis through this unaffiliated distributor. The distributor is responsible for placing food orders, warehousing and delivering food products to the company’s stores. Deliveries are generally made once per week to individual stores. Maple Street Biscuit Company The company acquired 100% ownership of Maple Street Biscuit Company (MSBC) on October 10, 2019. MSBC is a breakfast and lunch fast casual concept. Like Cracker Barrel, MSBC values genuine hospitality and made-from-scratch cooking including biscuit-inspired entrees, as well as freshly roasted coffee with a proprietary blend and a limited selection of beer and wine in certain locations. MSBC operates in a smaller footprint than its Cracker Barrel Old Country Store concept and has operating hours limited to the breakfast and lunch day parts. Trademarks The company deems the various Cracker Barrel and MSBC trademarks and service marks that it owns to be of substantial value. Seasonal Aspects Historically, the company’s revenue and profits have been lower in the first and third fiscal quarters and higher in the second and fourth fiscal quarters. The company attributes these variations primarily to the holiday shopping season and the summer vacation and travel season. The company’s gift shop sales, which are made substantially to its restaurant guests, historically have been highest in its second quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season. Historically, interstate tourist traffic and the propensity to dine out have been much higher during the summer months, thereby generally contributing to higher profits in the company’s fourth quarter. The company also generally opens additional new stores throughout the year. Therefore, the results of operations for any interim period cannot be considered indicative of the operating results for an entire year (year ended July 28, 2023). History Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. was founded in 1969. The company was incorporated in 1969.