Cracker Barrel 2008 Annual Report Download - page 9

makingthis complex operation run efficiently.Fortunately,
our management bench is stronganddeep. Therehave
been a number of individuals who madesignificant
contributionsover the years. I want to extenda sincere
thank you to Larry White, our former chief financialofficer,
whoretired in February of 2008. Larry helped us navigate
through theCracker Barrel turnaround in 2000 and 2001,
theLogan’s divestiture and our recapitalization initiatives
that began in 2006.
WE’RE BUSY MAKING OUR GOOD BUSINESS
PERFORM BETTER
Our operational initiatives continue to focus on improving
speed of service andmargins. We have foundthat
when we deliver their food in 14 minutes or less, guests
aremore likely to return and recommendour restaurant
over others.Oneof our initiatives,called “Seat to Eat,” is
intended to do just that. Seat to Eat includes food
process simplification andtesting newtypes of equipment
andnewkitchen andservice configurations. One way
that we have simplified our food preparation process is to
transfer some of the manual preparation to our vendors
which results in improved consistency andlower waste.
These process simplifications, however, are adopted
only after rigorous testing allows us to conclude that the
customer experience will not be diminished.We tried
this successfully with our Thanksgiving Day Special last year
andsaved over $500,000 through reduced overtime
just related to preparingfor that one day.Theprocess also
allowed us to serve morepeople on what is one of our
busiest days of the year. We continue to test new equipment
andnewconfigurations in orderto speed up meal
preparation time. An initial roll out of the first phase of
theSeat to Eat process improvements is planned for
fiscal 2009.
Another approach that we are using to increase speed
of service is menusimplification. We tested several
versions of the “Best of the Barrel” menuin 2008. The new
streamlined menuis intended to offer our guests’ favorites
while increasing speed in the kitchen, improvingmargins
andreducing waste.We arereplacingsomeof thelow-
volume menu items with appealing new offerings that are
faster to deliver with lower waste. We currently aretesting
thelatest version of the “Best of the Barrel” menuin an
expanded group of stores and intend to roll out the menu
to the entiresystem later in the fiscal year.
NextI wantto talk about the progress that we’ve made
in the retail business. In an extremely difficult general
retail environment, our comparable store sales were down
only 0.3 percent compared with 2007. This is an especially
positive performance because Cracker Barrel retail shops are
nottypically destination shopping places,andrestaurant
traffic slowed as consumers’ purchasing power declined in
2008. We are seeingthese positive results as implementation
of our new retail strategy,developed over the past year,
kicks in.
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In 2008, we introduced “floor-set location optimization,”
which integrated all ofthe parts ofthe merchandising
cycle. In simpler terms, this is part ofour effort to generate
higher sales dollars and profits from every square foot
of retail space. We are looking for new ways to link the
restaurant experience with our authentic retail offerings.
An effective way to tie everything together is with a theme.
For example, “TheGreatest Family Road Trip™” theme tied