What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2025-09-26 compared with 2024-09-27 · 45 added, 83 removed, 195 unchanged (40% of the section changed)

13 unchanged sentences

As of September 12, 2025, no Cracker Barrel stores were franchised.

In 2024, we announced our strategic transformation plan.

The strategic transformation plan is anchored on three overarching business imperatives:

In 2024, we announced our multi-year strategic plan.

The multi-year strategic plan is anchored on three overarching business imperatives:

driving relevancy, delivering food and an experience guests love, and growing profitability.

We have undertaken certain initiatives as part of these imperatives, including modifying capital allocation to support increased investment in the business to drive organic growth.

We launched our loyalty program to leverage guest data to better understand consumer behavior and identify ways to drive frequency and engagement.

As part of the plan, we are redefining our brand, including by improving our stores’ designs and atmosphere.

We are currently testing store remodel prototypes.

Our store remodel program includes two categories:

full remodels and store refreshes.

We expect that 25-30 stores will be fully remodeled and we expect to complete 25-30 store refreshes in 2025.

Store Format :

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Menu items are moderately priced.

Approximately 93%, of our Cracker Barrel restaurants serve an assortment of beer and wine as of the end of 2024.

Approximately 93% of our restaurants also serve an assortment of beer and wine.

Breakfast items can be ordered at any time throughout the day and include juices, eggs, pancakes, meats, grits, and a variety of biscuit specialties, such as gravy and biscuits and country ham and biscuits.

Lunch and dinner items include fried and grilled chicken, chicken and dumplings, chicken pot pie, meatloaf, country fried steak, pork chops, fish, country fried shrimp, steak, roast beef, ham, vegetable plates, sandwiches and salads.

Lunch and dinner items include fried and grilled chicken, chicken and dumplings, meatloaf, country fried steak, pork chops, fish, country fried shrimp, steak, vegetable plates, sandwiches and salads.

We also offer multi-serving takeout family meal baskets.

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Dinner Day-Part (4:00 p.m.

We also offer for sale in our gift shops items that are featured on, or related to, the restaurant menu, such as pies, cornbread mix, coffee, syrups and pancake mix.

Our gift shops offer a wide variety of decorative and functional items such as rocking chairs, seasonal gifts, apparel, toys, cookware and various other gift items, as well as various candies, preserves and other food items.

Our gift shops feature a variety of items inspired by our restaurant menu, such as pies, cornbread mix, coffee, syrups and pancake mix, as well as a broad selection of decorative and functional items, including rocking chairs, seasonal gifts, apparel, toys, cookware and various other gift items.

We also offer an assortment of candies, preserves and other food items.

The following table highlights the five categories that accounted for the largest shares of our retail sales in 2025:

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Apparel and Accessories

Our typical gift shop features approximately 4,300 stock keeping units.

At August 01, 2025, our gift shops featured approximately 3,100 stock keeping units (“SKUs”), which is a decrease from historical levels primarily due to our current initiative to rationalize SKUs.

Certain food items are sold under the “Cracker Barrel Old Country Store” brand name.

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Product Development and Merchandising :

We maintain a product development department, which develops new and improved menu items either in response to shifts in customer preferences or to create customer interest.

Our product development department develops new and improved menu items either in response to shifts in customer preferences or to create customer interest.

We use 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 our goals.

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Each of these categories includes several individual items.

Boneless chicken breast is the single food item within these categories that accounted for the largest share of our food purchasing expense in 2024 at approximately 5% of total food purchases.

Bacon is the single food item within these categories that accounted for the largest share of our food purchasing expense in 2025 at approximately 5% of total food purchases.

Dairy, fruits and vegetables are purchased through numerous vendors, including local vendors.

Eggs are purchased through five vendors.

We purchase our pork through seven vendors, poultry through nine vendors and beef through six vendors.

Eggs are purchased through six vendors.

We purchase our pork through six vendors, poultry through eleven vendors and beef through six vendors.

Should any food items from a particular vendor become unavailable, we generally believe that these food items could readily be obtained, or alternative products substituted, in sufficient quantities from other sources at competitive prices to allow us to avoid any material adverse effects that could be caused by such unavailability.

The majority of our retail items (approximately 80% in 2025) are warehoused at our retail distribution center in Lebanon, Tennessee.

The distribution center fulfills retail item orders generated by our automated replenishment system and generally ships the retail orders once a week to the individual stores by two third-party dedicated freight lines.

The remaining retail items are drop-shipped directly by our vendors to individual stores.

The retail distribution center processes orders generated by our automated replenishment system and typically ships retail products to individual stores on a weekly basis via two dedicated third-party freight lines.

The remaining retail items are shipped directly to our stores by our vendors.

Approximately one-third of our 2025 retail items were purchased directly from vendors in the People’s Republic of China.

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We use technology to enhance the experiences of our guests and our employees, and to assist management in all aspects of operating the business.

Examples include a digital experience that drives our loyalty program, effectively enables our off-premise business, allows for mobile payments in store, and provides guests with a digital waitlist that can be accessed remotely through our own mobile application.

Examples include a digital experience that drives our loyalty program, effectively enables our to-go and catering business, allows for mobile payments in our stores, and provides guests with a digital waitlist that can be accessed remotely through our own mobile application.

Our in-store guest experience is supported by systems that manage the dining room seating, assist in facilitating customer orders of food and retail products, and routes food orders to our kitchen.

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Our data solutions provide management with daily reports used to operate stores in a cost-effective manner and assist in analytics and decision-making.

Our help desk leverages technology solutions that enable an efficient and effective way to resolve technology concerns.

Our Service Center leverages technology solutions that enable an efficient and effective way to resolve Technology, Human Resources, Operations, Facilities and other corporate concerns.

We believe our technology is highly effective in supporting Cracker Barrel’s daily operations, and we continue to enhance this technology in line with our Company’s strategic vision.

Off-Premise Business :

Approximately 20% of our restaurant sales are generated through our off-premise channels.

Our off-premise business consists of three channels:

Individual To Go, Third-Party Delivery and Catering and Occasion.

Individual To Go includes to go orders that guests pick up from our stores.

Third-Party Delivery includes to go orders that are placed through an aggregator, e.g., Door Dash and Uber Eats, and delivered to guests by an employee of the aggregator.

Catering and Occasion includes offerings for large party sizes, which includes our popular Heat n’ Serve offerings that are available for certain holidays.

Approximately 20% of our restaurant sales are generated through our off-premise channels, which include Individual To Go, Third-Party Delivery and Catering and Occasion.

Individual To Go are orders picked up directly by our guests from our stores.

Third-Party Delivery are orders placed through aggregators such DoorDash® and Uber Eats, and delivered by their drivers.

Catering and Occasion are offerings designed for large parties, including our popular Heat n’ Serve meals available during select holidays.

In 2025, Individual To Go, Third-Party Delivery and Catering and Occasion accounted for approximately 50%, 32% and 18% of total off-premise sales, respectively.

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Our mission statement, “Pleasing People,” embraces guests and employees alike, and our employees are trained on the importance of that mission in a culture of mutual respect.

We also are committed to staffing each store with an experienced management team to ensure attentive guest service and consistent food quality.

We are also committed to staffing each store with an experienced management team to ensure attentive guest service and consistent food quality.

Through the regular use of guest surveys and store visits by district managers and operational vice presidents, management receives valuable feedback that is used in our ongoing efforts to improve the stores and to demonstrate our continuing commitment to pleasing our guests.

We have a guest-relations call center that takes comments and suggestions from guests and forwards them to operations or other management for information and follow up.

We use internet and interactive voice response systems to monitor operational performance and guest satisfaction at all stores on an ongoing basis.

We have public notices in our menus, on our website and posted in our stores informing customers and employees about how to contact us by internet or toll-free telephone number with questions, complaints or concerns regarding services or products.

We monitor operational performance and guest satisfaction at all stores on an ongoing basis.

We have public notices in our menus, on our website and posted in our stores informing customers and employees about how to contact us by internet with questions, complaints or concerns regarding services or products.

We conduct training on how to gather information and investigate and resolve customer concerns.

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Our event activations drive awareness for the brand and build cultural relevance and affinity with our guests.

Additionally, in the first quarter of 2024, we launched our customer loyalty program, Cracker Barrel Rewards.

Our customer loyalty program, Cracker Barrel Rewards, provides us with an opportunity to increase consumer frequency and engagement.

Store Development:

We opened two new Cracker Barrel stores in 2024.

We opened one new Cracker Barrel store and closed two Cracker Barrel stores in 2025.

Currently, we plan to open two new stores during 2026.

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Of the 657 stores open as of September 12, 2025, we own the land and buildings for 358, while the other 299 properties are either ground leases or ground and building leases.

Building, site improvement, furniture, equipment and related development costs for stores opened during 2024 averaged approximately $5,700 and pre-opening costs averaged $835 per store in 2024.

Building, site improvement, furniture, equipment and related development costs for the store opened in 2025 was approximately $7,700 and pre-opening costs averaged $985 per store in 2025.

Our current store prototype is approximately 8,900 square feet, including approximately 1,900 square feet of retail selling space and dining room seating for approximately 170 guests.

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MSBC operates in a smaller footprint than our Cracker Barrel Old Country Store concept and has operating hours limited to the breakfast and lunch day parts.

As of September 13, 2024, 68 MSBC locations were open, an increase from 59 at the same time last year — all are currently leased properties in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

As of September 12, 2025, 68 MSBC locations were open — all are currently leased properties in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

As of September 12, 2025, no MSBC locations were franchised.

We believe that MSBC will serve as a long-term growth vehicle that complements Cracker Barrel while providing increased exposure to urban and suburban markets.

Currently, we plan to open three to four MSBC locations in 2025.

HUMAN CAPITAL

3 unchanged sentences

People are at the core of our business and an essential part of our Company.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Since 1969, our corporate mission has been Pleasing People.

As an organization, we have a responsibility to live up to our mission of Pleasing People each day, ensuring that every member of our team and every guest feels at home, feels cared for like family, and feels like they belong.

Our teams work hard to create a culture of hospitality that’s welcoming, respectful and inclusive to everyone who walks through our doors – whether as an employee or as a guest.

Also guiding our way is the sense of belonging we strive to deliver as part of our People Promise.

This includes embracing openness for all people, ideas, and perspectives.

Our food and décor celebrate warm memories of the past, and we believe our inclusive culture and beliefs are vital to reinforcing these positive feelings in our employees and guests, and are thus critical to the strength of our brand and our corporate strategy.

Our firmly held organization-wide policy is that discrimination, overt or through unconscious bias, has no place at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.

As of August 02, 2024, 34% of our employee population is racially and/or ethnically diverse and 70% of our employee population is female.

We provide opportunities for our employees to drive our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategy by creating programs that raise awareness and allow for a more inclusive culture.

Our Business Resource Groups allow employees to come together with common interests, perspectives, and experiences around topics such as race, ethnicity, gender identity, and other special interests.

These employee-led organizations provide opportunities to network, to obtain and develop leadership skills, and to inform and influence on all aspects of the Cracker Barrel brand.

Currently, there are seven Business Resource Groups in Cracker Barrel:

AMPT (“Advancing Modern Professionals for Tomorrow”):

Aims to connect and empower modern professionals by promoting a community of inclusive, ambitious, and diverse members that unify through Cracker Barrel to equip our community and leaders for the future;

Cultivates and develops Black leaders within the Cracker Barrel organization utilizing allyship, mentorship, and education to create a path to continued excellence as well as a vibrant and diverse community;

Improving the employee experience by sponsoring health and wellness activities that nurture employees’ physical, emotional, financial and intellectual wellbeing;

HOLA (“Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Advancement"):

Promoting Hispanic and Latino culture through hiring, developing and retaining talent within Cracker Barrel;

LGBTQ+ Alliance:

Promoting LGBTQ+ Awareness and Building Workplace Inclusion;

Advocating for leadership and development opportunities for veterans, fostering an environment of networking and volunteerism and focusing on recruitment, retention and advancement;

Women’s Connect :

Inspiring women leaders.

Employee Development / Training

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Each store is equipped with dedicated training computers and cloud-based proprietary eLearning instruction programs.

We are increasing our focus on leadership development and mentorship programs to better secure strong, diverse talents across all facets of our organization.

This commitment is exemplified by our D.E.L.T.A program (“Diverse Employee Leadership Talent Advancement”).

This leadership program identifies diverse managers who have exhibited all the skills we value in our top-performing managers, brings them together to learn from each other, positions them to advance to their next role, while continuing to advance our business and strategic goals in the process.

Our new, robust diversity training includes education throughout all levels of the Company about unconscious and implicit bias and focuses on creating an inclusive culture and fostering a sense of belonging for all.

Employee Benefits / Compensation

4 unchanged sentences

This confidential program is available 24/7 for personal or professional consultations.

In addition, we provide all of our employees with access to paid parental leave and adoption benefits, a 401(k) savings plan, an employee discount policy at our Cracker Barrel stores, an employee stock purchase plan, and a competitive vacation policy.

In addition, we provide all our employees with access to paid parental leave and adoption benefits, a 401(k) savings plan, an employee discount policy at our Cracker Barrel stores, an employee stock purchase plan, and a competitive vacation policy.

Our compensation and performance evaluation systems are carefully designed to maintain pay equity by focusing pay decisions on experience and performance to ensure the Company retains a highly productive workforce to operate our business while providing a high level of service to our guests.

15 unchanged sentences

o Pandemic situations, e.g., COVID-19.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION

We are subject to various federal, state and local laws affecting our business, including areas of food safety, minimum wage increases, health care, zoning requirements, preparation and sale, among others, of food and alcoholic beverages, information security, and environmental matters.

Each of our stores must comply with licensing requirements and regulations by a number of governmental authorities and we have not been significantly affected by any delay in obtaining these licenses.

Federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations have not historically had a significant impact on our operations;

however, we cannot predict the effect of possible future environmental legislation or regulations on our operations.

We deem the various Cracker Barrel and MSBC trademarks and service marks that we own to be of substantial value.

Our policy is to obtain federal registration of trademarks and other intellectual property whenever possible and to pursue vigorously any infringement of our trademarks and service marks.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

While research and development is important to us, these expenditures have not been material due to the nature of the restaurant and retail industries.

RAW MATERIALS SOURCES AND AVAILABILITY

Essential restaurant supplies and raw materials are generally available from a number of sources.

Generally, we are not dependent upon single sources of supplies or raw materials.

However, in our stores, certain branded items are single source products or product lines.

Our ability to maintain consistent quality throughout our store system depends in part upon our ability to acquire food products and related items from reliable sources.

When the supply of certain products is uncertain or prices are expected to rise significantly, we may enter into purchase contracts or purchase bulk quantities for future use.

Adequate alternative sources of supply, as well as the ability to adjust menus if needed, are believed to exist for substantially all of our restaurant products.

Our retail supply chain generally involves longer lead-times and, often, more remote sources of product, including the People’s Republic of China, and most of our retail product is distributed to our stores through a single distribution center.

Although disruption of our retail supply chain could be difficult to overcome, we continuously evaluate the potential for disruptions and ways to mitigate such disruptions should they occur.

The restaurant and retail industries are intensely competitive with respect to the type and quality of food, retail merchandise, price, service, location, personnel, concept, attractiveness of facilities, availability of carryout and home delivery, internet and mobile ordering capabilities and effectiveness of advertising and marketing.

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Risk Factors.

RAW MATERIALS SOURCES AND AVAILABILITY

Essential restaurant supplies and raw materials are generally available from a number of sources.

Generally, we are not dependent upon single sources of supplies or raw materials.

However, in our stores, certain branded items are single source products or product lines.

Our ability to maintain consistent quality throughout our store system depends in part upon our ability to acquire food products and related items from reliable sources.

When the supply of certain products is uncertain or prices are expected to rise significantly, we may enter into purchase contracts or purchase bulk quantities for future use.

Adequate alternative sources of supply, as well as the ability to adjust menus if needed, are believed to exist for substantially all of our restaurant products.

Although disruption of our retail supply chain could be difficult to overcome, we continuously evaluate the potential for disruptions and ways to mitigate such disruptions should they occur.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION

Federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations have not historically had a significant impact on our operations;

however, we cannot predict the effect of possible future environmental legislation or regulations on our operations.

We deem the various Cracker Barrel and MSBC trademarks and service marks that we own to be of substantial value.

Our policy is to obtain federal registration of trademarks and other intellectual property whenever possible and to pursue vigorously any infringement of our trademarks and service marks.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

While research and development is important to us, these expenditures have not been material due to the nature of the restaurant and retail industries.

SEASONAL ASPECTS

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business