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Posted on 08/27/2025 7:01:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Julie Felss Masino and board ignored Sardar Biglari's criticism of $700M transformation plan calling it 'obvious folly'.
Cracker Barrel’s slide into a rebranding debacle began with a phone call at 4:30 p.m. on May 16, 2024.
That day, Cracker Barrel’s new CEO, Julie Felss Masino, got on the phone with investors and unveiled the details of a "strategic transformation plan" her board of directors had approved. The first of "five pillars" in the plan would be "refining" and "evolving the brand across all touchpoints."
Over the next months, Masino and her board of directors dismissed at least four warnings by a top investor, Sardar Biglari, that the rebranding was "obvious folly," filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal.
"Cracker Barrel is not a broken brand but it has a broken board," he wrote, in a scathing seven-page letter to shareholders.
He laid out his criticisms in a 120-page slide-deck presentation with the title, "CRACKER BARREL IS IN CRISIS," next to the company’s longtime logo of an old man in overalls leaning on a barrel – a logo that Masino would wipe out, unbeknownst to Biglari at the time.
While the dynamics of company executives pursuing politically correct, woke rebranding are now well-documented, a timeline of the last year-and-a-half behind-the-scenes at Cracker Barrel reveals a classic case of corporate myopia, ignoring caution and barreling forward with rigidity.
On the call in May 2024, Masino announced she’d hired a new "leading" branding agency to "refine and strengthen positioning to delight existing and new guests." The other pillars included "enhancing the menu," "evolving the store and guest experience," "winning in digital and off-premise" and "elevating the employee experience."
Biglari, a San Antonio, Texas, venture capitalist sometimes nicknamed "Big," didn’t buy the corporate gobbledygook.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
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She forgot the cardinal rule: If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
I like CB the way it was. They needed an updated menu but have classics that should stay. They need to throughly clean the stuff on the walls, I’ve been in CBs where there is layers of dust on their decorations. Update the gift shop.
I like the food, it’s reliable.
Ms. Masino previously served as the President, International of Taco Bell, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) from January 2020 to June 2023. From January 2018 to December 2019, she served as President, North America of Taco Bell. Ms. Masino served as the President, SVP and GM Fisher-Price at Mattel, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAT) from April 2017 to January 2018. Prior to her service at Mattel, Ms. Masino served as the President and then the Chief Executive Officer of Sprinkles Cupcakes from 2014 to 2017. From 2002 to 2014, Ms. Masino served in various leadership roles at Starbucks Corporation
Biglari is not much better, he has attempted to take over Cracker Barrel in the past. He controls Steak n’ Shake, which has been losing money and shutting down locations.
If a new CEO writes that gobbled-gook, investors should fell.
“She forgot the cardinal rule: If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”
If you look at the five year stock price, it was broken. But it is a restaurant, they serve FOOD. Fix the FOOD and the perceived value the customer is getting.
That's because those are pie courses that don't require colleges to teach you anything, but allow them to take the student's money.
Cracker Barrel has always been a poor man's Po' Folks.
“evolving the brand across all touchpoints.”
“touchpoints”????
That girl boss is obviously impressed with herself using that kind psychobabble.
Seriously?
On what charge? Stupidity and incompetence is not a crime.is not a crime
Agent/PrincipalAny person, corporation, partnership, or government agency might be called upon to act as agent without conflict of interest on behalf of a principal. A common example of an agent/principal relationship that implies fiduciary duty is the one between the executives of a company and its shareholders. The shareholders expect that the executives will make well-considered, prudent decisions on their behalf and in their best interests as owners.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042915/what-are-some-examples-fiduciary-duty.asp
Twenty-Eight Words: Enforcing Corporate Fiduciary Duties Through Criminal Prosecution of Honest Services FraudLisa L. Casey, Notre Dame Law School
This article examines the federal government's growing use of 18 U.S.C. § 1346 to prosecute public company executives for breaching their fiduciary duties. Section 1346 is a controversial but under-examined statute making it a felony to engage in a scheme "to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services." Although enacted by Congress over twenty years ago, the Supreme Court repeatedly declined to review the statute, until now. In 2009, Justice Antonin Scalia pointed to the numerous interpretive questions dividing the federal appellate courts and proclaimed that it was "quite irresponsible" to let the "current chaos prevail." Since then, the Court has granted certiorari in no fewer than three separate cases construing the honest services law. The questions before the Supreme Court are of particular interest to public company executives and their professional advisors. Following revelations of massive fraud and management wrongdoing at Enron and other public companies, the Justice Department employed § 1346 to indict executives accused of breaching their fiduciary duties. Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and former Hollinger CEO Conrad Black are just two of the corporate fiduciaries found guilty of breaching their duties and convicted under the statute.
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/777/
This CEO and Board members were not stupid or incompetent, but were intentionally set on destroying Cracker Barrel with no concern of shareholders, even when they in no uncertain terms were warned. I am retired from (MCI) DBA Verizon Business and experianced the shenanigans of Bernie Ebbers that got him a federal prison sentance that turned out for life.
My wife just heard on the radio that Cracker Barrel managment caved and will put it all back like it was.
Post Nbr 5 was pulled.
What is your DBA term in the insurance and consulting (and rebranding consulting) industry?
I only recognize Doing Business As” for checks and policies.
“refining” and “evolving the brand across all touchpoints.”
who talks like that ? what does it even mean
They all read the same books about "leaning in" to the problems and solutions.
Cracker Barrel has been one of the most loved brands in America for decades… That changed this week with a logo redesign that infuriated the public but… the problem goes MUCH deeper than a logo. @CrackerBarrel has gone fully woke and now it’s time to expose everything.Here’s the highlights you need to know:
• Cracker Barrel has funded "all ages" Pride events for many years like Nashville Pride and Third River City Pride.
• Cracker Barrel worked with the far left HRC organization and reportedly sponsored HRC events for 10 years. They even brought an HRC representative to their Tennessee HQ to do a pronoun and transgenderism training. We’ve included photos of this in the video. As a reminder, the HRC supports child sex changes and men in women’s bathrooms. They work to normalize/legalize both things and they work to force transgenderism in the workplace.
• Cracker Barrel worked with a group called Conexión Américas as part of their DEI efforts. This group helps illegal immigrants, providing them lawyers and the executive director opposes President Trump’s deportations.
• Cracker Barrel sponsored the Out & Equal LGBTQ Workplace Advocate Conference and presented a workshop on how Cracker Barrel has made progress supporting LGBTQ+ causes. This group works to push sexual topics and pronouns into the workplace.
• Cracker Barrel was awarded Out & Equal’s 2018 top LGBT ERG group award and they won the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce "Corporate Diversity" award.
• CB created a special "diverse" suppliers program focused on increasing "diversity" among suppliers. To most people this just reads as: less white people.
• Had Coming out day pamphlets passed out at their TN headquarters as well as pamphlets about supporting "LGBTQ YOUTH" and creating "Safe Zones" at work, free from "heterosexist or cwordgendered comments and actions" (X will downrank my post if I spell that word out). If you said anything activists would describe as "heterosexist" then you were told that you’d be "educated" by their LGBT office group.
• CB has had multiple DEI focused employees and had CB employees attend DEI roundtables.
• CB had pride flags at their corporate office.
• CB promoted the Stonewall riot to employees and on their website despite the fact that the Stonewall Inn was reportedly owned by the mafia, rife with drug dealing and also the site of teen "prostitution" for older men.
• Had a Cracker Barrel employee on the HRC’s business advisory council.
• Has ERG groups in the office that are divided by race and sexual preferences.
• A total commitment to DEI policies.
• CB has had MANY activist employees driving this far left policy agenda, including a head of training + management, top execs and a board of directors member who owns a DEI consulting firm.
They’ve destroyed the company, which is obviously what they wanted.
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