Cracker Barrel drops marketing firm behind disastrous logo refresh, raising further questions about future plans

By Bill Peters

The Americana-themed restaurant chain also says it will streamline its leadership team

Cracker Barrel said it was "ending its engagement" with Prophet, a consulting company based in San Francisco.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. on Thursday said it would stop working with the consultancy that advised it on a logo change and restaurant overhaul that backfired over the summer, raising further questions about the Americana-themed restaurant chain's path forward.

The company also said it would take steps to streamline its leadership team.

Cracker Barrel (CBRL) said it was "ending its engagement" with Prophet, a company based in San Francisco. Prophet did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The restaurant chain announced in March that it would be working with Prophet to refresh its brand identity.

The restaurant operator also said that it had eliminated the role of senior vice president and chief restaurant and retail operations officer. Those duties had been held by Cammie Spillyards-Schaefer. Thomas Yun, it said, would return to the company as vice president of menu strategy and innovation, replacing Matthew Banton. Yun had developed some of Cracker Barrel's more successful menu items in recent years, the company said.

Cracker Barrel made the decisions after the chain's logo refresh - which removed an illustration of a man sitting next to a barrel to simply say "Cracker Barrel" - drew outrage from diners and some conservatives. The company reversed the decision shortly after.

It similarly reversed itself last month after a remodeling push - intended to brighten up some of its restaurants and make them more inviting - drew resistance from customers.

In March, Cracker Barrel said it would work with Prophet and two other agencies to assist on the brand reboot. Management for the restaurant, at that time, said Prophet was "focused on shaping a new brand vision that will enhance market share while preserving the company's unique heritage."

"This new strategy will inform brand communication, restaurant redesigns, brand marketing campaigns and a redefined employee value proposition," that announcement said.

Shares of Cracker Barrel slipped 0.5% after hours on Thursday. So far this year, the stock is down 16.4%.

Cracker Barrel embarked on its multi-year transformation in 2024, as the chain, founded in 1969, tries to compete more during dinner hours and keep apace with a dining landscape increasingly shaped by smartphones and other digital technology.

But even before the changes announced on Thursday, analysts wondered where the moves to walk back the logo change and the remodels left the company.

Even after restoring its old logo and abandoning remodeling efforts, Cracker Barrel executives last month said they expect fewer diners in the months ahead. During its earnings call at that time, management said it expected capital expenses of around $135 million to $150 million in the coming fiscal year, with plans to invest in things like improving the restaurants' paint jobs, lighting, flooring, restrooms and parking lots. Cracker Barrel's fiscal 2025 ended on Aug. 1.

"Given the adjustments we are making, it's too early to set a specific capex range for fiscal 2027," Chief Executive Julie Felss Masino said on that call. "But we will be well below the prior three-year figure of $600 million to $700 million that we provided at the outset of our program for fiscal 2025 through 2027."

Citi analyst Jon Tower last month said the halt to the remodels left Cracker Barrel's future spending plans, and its longer-term forecasts for around $3.8 billion to $3.9 billion in sales in fiscal 2027, up in the air. BofA analysts said the company's rebound "may be protracted."

-Bill Peters

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10-02-25 2107ET