Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc,. 2026 Q4 Earnings Call

Welcome to Cracker Barrel's fourth quarter fiscal 2026 conference call and webcast. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our fourth quarter results. In this press release and on this call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter ended July 31st, 2026. Please refer to the footnotes in our press release for further details about these metrics. The company believes these measures provide investors with an enhanced understanding of the company's financial performance. This information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net income or earnings per share information prepared in accordance with GAAP. The last pages of the press release include reconciliations from the non-GAAP information to the GAAP financials. On the call with me are Cracker Barrel's President and CEO, David Deno, and Senior Vice President and CFO, Craig Pommells.

David and Craig will provide a review of the business, financials, and outlook. We will then open up the call for questions. On this call, statements may be made by management of their beliefs and expectations regarding the company's future operating results or expected future events. These are known as forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties that in many cases are beyond management's control and may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. We caution our listeners and readers in considering forward-looking statements and information. Many of the factors that could affect results are summarized in the cautionary description of risks and uncertainties found at the end of the press release and are described in detail in our reports that we file with or furnish to the SEC.

Finally, the information shared on this call is valid as of today's date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update it except as may be required under applicable law. I'll now turn the call over to Cracker Barrel's President and CEO, David Deno.

David. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us.

As many of you know, I stepped into the CEO role about six weeks ago. Having spent several decades working in the industry, I have long admired this iconic brand and been excited about the opportunity ahead of us. Given my brief tenure at the company, today's remarks will focus on early observations and priorities. Over the past few weeks, I've spent the vast majority of my time meeting with team members, visiting stores, and speaking with our guests. I've also tried to get a deeper understanding of the brand, our current strategy, and recent performance. A few things are already very clear to me. First, Cracker Barrel is on the right track. Second, we are a highly differentiated brand with tremendous potential. Third, we have a passionate guest base, among the most passionate I've seen.

Fourth, our people are critical to our success. They are the foundation for our hospitality and the connection that guests feel to our brand. We have 75,000 talented and dedicated employees who are committed to delivering exceptional guest experiences. They are energized by our momentum and are invested in the long-term success of Cracker Barrel. Next, broadly speaking, the company is already focused on the right areas and has a strong plan, as demonstrated by the continued improvements in performance over the last several quarters. We are working to refine and further strengthen our plan, particularly as it relates to our focus on food and guests. Finally, this company has been through a difficult stretch and has come out stronger. The team made hard calls, listened to guests, and got the business back on offense. The results of the past couple of quarters speak for themselves.

A big part of my management philosophy is doing fewer things better and concentrating on opportunities that could have the greatest impact. For restaurants, the formula is pretty straightforward. You must offer great food, provide a great guest experience, and hire and retain excellent employees who deliver both. These are the priorities that we will be focused on, food, experience, and people. I'll now speak briefly about each area. Our first priority is food, more specifically, enhancing our quality while making it more craveable. We are making investments to improve food quality. Dinner is our biggest opportunity, and we plan to upgrade our chicken, hamburger, and steak offerings. We also want to ensure our great food meets guests' expectations for taste, temperature, and quality on every visit.

These changes are all about increasing guest satisfaction and not about taking out costs, and the associated investments are embedded in our guidance. Although enhancing our dinner offerings is the priority from a day part perspective, breakfast remains our strongest area in both food scores and traffic trends. Our menu work and marketing will capitalize on this strength even as we work to improve dinner. Guest experience is our second priority. Operationally, the company has made impressive gains across the key metrics in recent quarters. This is thanks to the dedicated efforts of our teams in the stores as well as our store support center. In Q4, our Google star rating increased 2% year-over-year and remained near an all-time high. Food taste and service scores increased nearly 400 basis points, and food temperature scores improved 500 basis points compared to Q4 last year.

These results are very encouraging, and we are confident in our ability to improve hospitality even further. The retail shop is critically important to the Cracker Barrel brand. This has been one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises for me since I joined the company. The business is a real competitive advantage because we are the only full-service restaurant brand offering guests a true retail experience alongside their meal. We will make the retail experience even better for our guests. From a product standpoint, we will continue to offer unique quality assortments at a strong value. From a merchandising standpoint, we are introducing targeted enhancements to improve the shopping experience. This includes simplifying our product layouts, widening aisles, and improving sight lines. Another key part of the guest experience is our loyalty program, Cracker Barrel Rewards. The strength of the program is remarkable.

We have over 12.5 million members that account for over 40% of tracked sales. This is a differentiator that we will continue to leverage. The team is continuing to improve our personalization capabilities, and we recently launched a new website and app to make the experience easier and more seamless for our guests. Turning to our final priority, our people. Cracker Barrel has a special culture, and our team members are our greatest asset. Employee engagement and retention are critical to our plan. We continue to see favorable turnover trends. in Q4, hourly turnover improved 450 basis points, and manager turnover improved 85 basis points compared to the prior year. To sustain these gains and support strong execution, we will ensure our team members are equipped with the skills and training to be successful and highly effective. Additionally, we will be enhancing our training and development programs and tools.

In closing, we have a strong and focused plan. We will accomplish our objectives by relentlessly executing against the priorities we have identified and doing fewer things much better. Most importantly, the entire organization is aligned against our objectives, investing in and improving our food, continuing to provide outstanding service and hospitality, and creating a great work experience for our people. As a result of the strong execution of these priorities, we will meaningfully improve profitability and cash flow in fiscal 2027 and set the business up for long-term success. I will now turn it over to Craig to review Q4 financials and the fiscal 2027 outlook.

Thank you, Dave, and good morning, everyone. Before reviewing our results, I want to build on Dave's remarks and thank our teams. The business continues to gain traction, as reflected in the improvement in our underlying traffic trend, key guest metrics, and overall financial results. I am proud of our team's work and excited about the opportunity ahead. Turning to the fourth quarter results. Total revenue was $849.3 million. Restaurant revenue was $698.5 million. Comparable store restaurant sales decreased 2.1%, which included a traffic decline of 6.1%. As a reminder, in Q4, we were lacking a stronger quarter in the prior year, and there was significant variability in the prior year comparisons for Q3 and Q4. Controlling for this variability, we were pleased with the continued gradual improvement in the traffic trend, and these top-line results exceeded our expectations. The restaurant average check increased 4.2%, including pricing of 4.4%.

Menu mix was slightly negative, but we continue to benefit from menu initiatives, such as the option to upgrade to three sides. Off-premise sales were 19% of restaurant sales, an increase of approximately 100 basis points compared to the prior year, driven by growth in third-party delivery. Retail revenue was $150.8 million. Comparable store retail sales increased 0.7%, driven by increases in the average unit selling price and units per transaction. This was partially offset by lower traffic. We were pleased with the performance of our retail business, with this quarter representing the strongest retail comp sales growth since the second quarter of fiscal 2023. We saw strength in the toys and housewares categories, and we also benefited from pulling forward our Halloween assortment. Moving to profitability, we reported adjusted EBITDA of $62.1 million, which was up 11.4% versus the prior year.