Investor called Cracker Barrel transformation plan ‘folly’ before rebranding

The slide of Cracker Barrel in a rebranding -debacle began with a telephone name at 4.30 pm on Could 16, 2024.

That day got here the brand new CEO of Cracker Barrel, Julie Felss Masino, on the telephone with traders and revealed the small print of 1 “Strategic transformation plan” Her board of administrators had accredited. The primary of “5 pillars” within the plan could be “refine” and “the model evolve over all contact factors.”

Within the coming months, Masino and its board of administrators have rejected a minimum of 4 warnings by a prime investor, Sardar Biglarari, that the rebranding was “apparent foolishness”, the Securities and Alternate Fee revealed.

“Cracker Barrel shouldn’t be a damaged model, but it surely has a damaged plate,” he wrote in a single Scathering letter of seven pages To shareholders.

He put his criticism in a single 120 -page slide presentation presentation With the title, “Cracker Barrel is in disaster”, along with the outdated emblem of the corporate of an outdated man in overalls leaning on a barrel – a emblem that may wipe away Masino at the moment with out the information of Biglarari.

Cracker Barrel CEO serves leftover business branding for unfortunate customers

Cracker Barrel unveiled a brand new textual content solely in August 2025 in August 2025, to interchange his iconic man-and-vessen design that was first launched in 1977. The brand new design attracted velocity within the restaurant trade. (Picture -Ilustration by Thomas Fuller/Sopa Pictures/Lighttrocket By way of/Getty Pictures)

Though the dynamics of managers who pursue politically accurately, rebranding is now properly documented, one timeline From the previous 12 months and a half behind the scenes in Cracker Barrel, a basic case of firm softening, warning and vessels with rigidity reveals.

Throughout the name in Could 2024, Masino introduced that she had employed a brand new “main” model company to “refine and strengthen positioning to thrill present and new friends”. The opposite pillars embrace “enhancing the menu”, “evolving the shop and visitor expertise”, “win in digital and off-premise” and “elevate the worker expertise”.

Biglarari, a enterprise capitalist in San Antonio, Texas, typically has purchased the nickname ‘Massive’, not the enterprise gobbledygook.

Since 2011 he has develop into one of many largest traders within the firm, along with BlackRock Inc., GMT Capital Corp., the Vanguard Group Inc. and Alliancebernstein LP, he’s additionally the proprietor of Maxim Journal, that approved Donald Trump in 2024, and Steak ‘n Shake, one other nationwide restaurant chain. Biglarari didn’t reply to requests for feedback. On Monday, Cracker Barrel issued a clarification that “it may have achieved higher to share who we’re …” however didn’t point out that it will flip across the course.

Different traders additionally didn’t reply properly to the information, the corporate’s share value fell at $ 48.98 the following day.

The son of a former navy officer beneath Shah Reza Pahlavi, Biglarari was born in Tehran in Tehran, Iran and fled along with his household to San Antonio after Ayatollah Khomeini got here to energy, pahlavi exhausted and putting in a brutal theocracy. Biglarari first labored within the Persian carpet store of his household and constructed firms as a youngster and in his Nineteen Twenties created an funding agency within the twenties, Biglarari Holdings, which is now performing on the New York Inventory Alternate. He has invested in a collection of all-American restaurant manufacturers, together with Western Sizzlin, Pleasant’s, Steak ‘n Shake and Cracker Barrel.

A collection of cracker barrel boards and senior executives fired him as a unusual “activist investor” with a suspicious “Final agenda”, and his criticism fell on deaf ears final 12 months. Biglarari has constructed up a repute as a “bully” and “Evil Genius” instantly “Type X” Character, pushed by cash. Early in his funding in Cracker Barrel, he created a web site for his criticism: Enhanancerackerbarrel.com. Cracker Barrel responded to at least one webpage devoted to traders.

The CEO and the board walked forward, hire A brand new Chief Advertising Officer, Sarah Moore, in July 2024 from MGM Resorts Worldwide, doubled on costly renovations within the retailer and “renew”.

Are 2024 Annual reportLaunched in September, a bit “Range, Fairness & Inclusion” included the seven “enterprise sources” for selling “varied members”, “Black Leaders”, “Hispanic and Latino Tradition”, “LGBTQ+ Consciousness,” Navy veterans and feminine leaders.

Within the report, managers warned within the report that the “failure” his “strategic transformation plan” with the rebranding “couldn’t affect” with the rebranding “may have an hostile impact on our outcomes.” Additionally they observed: “unfavorable publicity may hurt our firm”, resembling “activist shareholders”, resembling Biglarari.

Biglarari had had sufficient by October 8, 2024. In his scorching letter of seven pages to the shareholders, he warned them of the ‘apparent foolishness’ of the board, Greenlighting Masino and ‘Her New Transformation Plan’. He criticized the alleged dysfunction and mismanagement of the board.

“Cracker Barrel is in harmful instances,” he wrote.

He defined grim figures. In 2011, Cracker Barrel reported $ 167 million in enterprise revenue on a turnover of $ 2.4 billion. By 2023, after $ 1.4 billion in cumulative capital expenditures, enterprise revenue had fallen to $ 121 million, even when revenue climbed by $ 3.4 billion.

“… The issue shouldn’t be within the seats, however in it to let extra individuals sit in it,” he warned, “we don’t consider that altering the furnishings and altering the design will change the method of the corporate or solves the underlying drawback of the corporate’s underlying site visitors.”

Cracker Barrel rejects critics as a ‘vocal minority’, while rival restaurant contributes to recoil

CEO Julie Felss Masino introduced a radical “strategic transformation plan” in Could 2024, inflicting traders. Dare capitalist Sardar Biglarari warned shareholders in October 2024 that the rebranding of Cracker Barrel was ‘apparent foolishness’. (Gregory Walton / AFP through / getty pictures)

Cracker Barrel, he argued, “shouldn’t be an pressing want for a metamorphosis; it urgently wants a change.”

He succeeded his slide, and warned Cracker Barrel at a “essential bending level”, characterised by “shareholders worth nursing” and a “poor signal” that was “chargeable for the present malaise”.

After the CEO and the board ignored its warnings in October 2024, Biglarari responded with an excellent sharper Criticism of two pages On November 13, 2024. “In case you had $ 100 in January 2019 on Cracker Barrel shares, it’s value round $ 30 5 years later. That’s the reason there may be solely $ 30 to go earlier than your complete funding is misplaced,” he wrote.

As an alternative of correcting the corporate’s course, he claimed, board members circled the Wagons across the administration group. “They respect collegiality above accountability,” he wrote.

He described the “transformation” as a “error” of misguided managers who fell right into a “trainer of superfluous to beauty reworking”. ”

He observed a bit humorous: “The Day Cracker Barrel opened” in 1969, “It was outdated – the theme derived from the Nineteen Twenties. I’m involved that the renovation won’t solely work, but it surely may even additional injury the model.”

He observed: “Let me make my place clear: the renovation plan of $ 700 million from the corporate won’t work!”

Biglarari requested shareholders to vote for him and a former director of Getty Pictures, Milena Alberti Perez, to interchange two board leaders, Carl Berquist and Meg Crattle, whom he criticized as incompetent.

However on November 21, 2024, the shareholders selected the facet of administration. Cracker Barrel introduced that the ten beneficial nominees had been chosen, together with CEO Masino.

The administration praised the temper as an approval of the “transformation” as “the precise path to present Cracker barrel again to development and significant worth creation for all shareholders.”

However the market informed a unique story, during which the share worth of the corporate fell once more.

Quick-Ahead till August 2025. The brand new look of Cracker Barrel hit the viewers. The enduring man-and-vessel emblem assumed that the chain had used since 1977. In got here a design with solely textual content and tens of millions of {dollars} within the ‘Modernization’ retailer.

The return was quick. Investor Chris Wunder, CEO of Leap Manufacturers, an government recruitment firm with experience within the restaurant trade, in contrast the rebranding with “taking a classic chevy and putting in clown edges and a neon portray.” He mentioned downright: “Possibly we must always have had Sardar Biglarari and Biglarari Holdings Inc. take over.”

Cracker Barrel is confronted with criticism from the customer after throwing away the iconic 48-year-old logo for new design

The inventory of Cracker Barrel decreased after the rollout of his rebranding in 2025, following investor warnings for ‘worth destruction’. Critics say that the modernized look of Cracker Barrel handed out the heritage of the corporate, tied to his rustic emblem and design for a very long time. (Picture -Irustration by Igor Golovniov/Sopa pictures/Lighttrocket through/getty pictures)

The inventory, identical to Biglarari, had warned: falling once more.

“The story appears clear sufficient,” mentioned Scott Johnston, a former Wall Road financier and writer of a brand new novel, “All of the Good Individuals”, a few signal that’s extra centered on collegiality than accountability. “This can be a firm that felt compelled to see sins previously previously,” when it fired Homo staff in 1991 earlier than it shortly reversed its coverage. “The method went overboard. With their eyes of the ball, the corporate suffered and use the issues they’ve created themselves because the pretext to transform the model, a bit that appears doomed from the beginning.”

Now Biglarari’s warnings learn as a prophecy.

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Final week Biglarari’s different restaurant model, Steak ‘n Shake, stacked with an X submit with the brand new model Cracker Barrel with a blunt message: “Fireplace the CEO. “

Biglarari lastly had an viewers.