The owner of Indianapolis-based Steak ‘n Shake is attacking the leadership of the troubled Cracker Barrel restaurant chain.
The burger diner chain, on social media, outed itself as being behind a billboard in Nashville, Tennessee, calling for the ouster of Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino.
Steak ‘n Shake in a post on X admitted its CEO Sardar Biglari bought the billboard reading, “Fire the CEO.”
“Yes, we are responsible for this billboard,” Steak ‘n Shake’s post reads. “Cracker Barrel’s board has failed its shareholders. It has spent over a decade fighting with one of its largest shareholders rather than collaborating for the good of the company.”
In the post, Steak ‘n Shake, which has courted President Donald Trump supporters and gained recognition from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. adds that Cracker Barrel “has been at the forefront of the (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) movement,” while seeing “reduced food quality and burned millions on failed acquisitions.”
“Now, we are running a proxy contest at our own expense to fire the CEO. Biglari is doing the work left undone by the board,” the post continues, echoing similar points raised in Biglari’s proxy filing with the SEC. “Fire the CEO! Save Cracker Barrel!”
The move follows criticism from fans regarding the change to its popular “Old Timer” logo and moves to remodel restaurants, but Biglari has been after Cracker Barrel for a while.
Since 2011, Biglari has run seven proxy contests at Cracker Barrel, according to The Wall Street Journal. In an SEC filing dated Sept. 18, Biglari, a longtime investor in Cracker Barrel, said he and his associates own 654,141 Cracker Barrel shares, or 2.9% of the company’s stock.
Biglari, who is a longtime investor in Cracker Barrel and owns nearly 3% of the company’s shares, is leading a proxy battle to get rid of Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino, according to a Sept. 18 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Masino has served in the role since July 2023.
Since 2008, Steak ‘n Shake, which has about 400 locations nationwide, has been a subsidiary of Biglari’s San Antonio, Texas-based Biglari Holdings.
Steak ‘n Shake, which invented the steakburger, was founded in 1934 on Route 66 in Normal, Illinois. It moved from a full-service diner chain to a kiosk ordering model in 2021.
‘Exactly the sort of stunt we would expect from him’
In a statement emailed to USA TODAY on Sept. 19, Cracker Barrel further confirmed that Biglari is behind the billboard.
“This billboard … is exactly the sort of stunt we would expect from him,” the statement reads. “For fourteen years, our shareholders have rejected his self-serving campaigns against Cracker Barrel. Launching personal attacks from billboards to attempt to disrupt a business like Cracker Barrel is not what serious or well-intentioned investors do and not what Tennesseans expect or deserve.”
During an investor call following Cracker Barrel’s fourth quarter earnings report on Sept. 17, Craig Pemmelis, the company’s chief financial officer, said customer traffic for the first half of August was down approximately 1%. Since Aug. 19, the date of the official logo change, traffic dropped approximately 8%, he continued, adding that the company now expects a further decline of 7% to 8% if similar trends continue.
Despite the logo change dilemma, total revenue for the quarter increased 4.4%, totaling $868 million, according to Pemmelis.
Contributing: Michelle Del Rey, USA TODAY.
Contact Midwest Connect reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cjackson@gannett.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X.com: @cherylvjackson or Bluesky: @cherylvjackson.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Does Steak ‘n Shake have a beef with Cracker Barrel? Burger chain owner wants CEO out
Reporting by Cheryl V. Jackson and Jonathan Limehouse, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
