Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL) has reduced its shares outstanding by 50% to 23.5 million since 2000, increasing earnings per share while maintaining a consistent strategy of providing nondiscounted country food and retail merchandise, says Gary Bradshaw, Senior Vice President & Portfolio Manager at Hodges Capital Management.
“They stuck to their knitting of providing great-tasting country cooking at inexpensive prices, and they didn’t get into the discounts like Chili’s, T.G.I. Friday’s or Applebee’s — I call it the “T.G.I. Chilibee’s” — where you go in and get two for $20 or two for $25. Cracker Barrel never engaged in discounting, and their customers have come back week after week for the same good food. Their same-store sales have been over 3%, which is much better than the industry average,” Bradshaw said.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW CLICK HERE.
Bradshaw says the restaurant chain has about 625 locations along interstate highways, and it yields a dividend of about 3.26%. The store also monetizes the waiting room at the restaurants by including a retail store for T-shirts, toys and novelties.
“In addition, Cracker Barrel has a little retail store in the front of each restaurant where you can buy T-shirts, novelties and toys while you wait to be seated. They will do about $1 million of business in these retail stores. Of late, Cracker Barrel has rewarded shareholders by raising their dividend. Just this past quarter they raised it 50%, from $0.50 a share quarterly to $0.75 a share quarterly,” Bradshaw said.
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL) Grows Dividend While Maintaining Healthy Cash Levels
August 05, 2013
Recommended Reading – CEOs: Same Old faces in the C-Suite, BusinessWeek
August 27, 2009
Michael Kors Holdings Ltd (KORS) Outperforms Expectations, Shows Consistent Same-Store Sales Growth
March 17, 2014
Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST) an Undervalued Stock Expected to Show Stronger Same-Store Sales Growth
July 22, 2014
CarMax, Inc’s (KMX) Same-Store Sales Could be Down to 4% This Year
June 26, 2015
