Cracker Barrel reported fiscal first-quarter sales below expectations and lowered its revenue forecast for the year as the company continues to feel the impact of failed plans to remodel its logo and restaurants.
The Lebanon, Tenn.-based restaurant chain said Tuesday that revenue fell 5.7% to $797.2 million in the three months ended Oct. 31. That was below Wall Street expectations of $800 million, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Cracker Barrel said its same-store restaurant sales fell 4.7% and retail store sales fell 8.5%. Those declines were also slightly larger than analysts forecast.
Cracker Barrel said it now expects total revenue in fiscal 2026 to be between $3.2 billion and $3.3 billion. This figure fell to $3.45 billion from $3.35 billion previously. The company also said it expected adjusted pretax earnings of $70 million to $110 million, down from the previous range of $150 million to $190 million.
Cracker Barrel shares fell more than 10% in after-hours trading Tuesday.
Cracker Barrel announced in August that it was simplifying the chain’s logo as part of a plan to modernize the chain’s dark, antique-filled restaurants.
But this move had disastrous consequences. What fans didn’t like was that the new logo didn’t include Cracker Barrel’s longtime mascot, a man in overalls leaning against a barrel, nor did it include the words “Old Country Store.” They also objected to the store’s redesign.
A week later, Cracker Barrel backtracked and said it would keep the sign. In September, the company also suspended store renovation plans. The chain operates about 650 restaurants nationwide, many in Texas, Florida and Tennessee.
Despite the logo failure, Cracker Barrel shareholders voted late last month to keep CEO Julie Felss Masino on board.
But Gilbert Davila, one of the company’s directors, resigned from Cracker Barrel’s board on Thursday after preliminary results showed shareholders rejected his re-election. Davila joined the Cracker Barrel Board of Directors in 2020 and is currently President and CEO of DMI Consulting, a multicultural marketing firm. As part of his responsibilities on the board, he reviewed Cracker Barrel advertising.
