Business
Cracker Barrel stock falls as company reports mixed earnings after rebrand controversy
In an aerial view, a Cracker Barrel sign featuring the old logo hangs on a sign outside of a restaurant on Aug. 27, 2025 in Florida City, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store said Wednesday the restaurant chain is focusing on enhancing its experiences for guests after it faced intense backlash over an attempted rebrand earlier this summer.
The company reported mixed fiscal fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday afternoon, and CEO Julie Masino said the company is “optimistic” about its future as it heads into next year.
The stock sank roughly 10% in after hours trading.
Here’s how the company performed compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 74 cents vs. 80 cents expected
- Revenue: $868 million vs. $855 million expected
Masino said Cracker Barrel was grateful for customers voicing their “passion for Cracker Barrel in recent weeks” and that the company is now switching its focus.
“We conducted extensive research to inform our strategic plan, but what cannot be captured in data is how much our guests see themselves and their own story in the Cracker Barrel experience, which is what’s led to such a strong response to these changes,” Masino said on a call with analysts Wednesday.
The company is now focusing on innovating in the kitchen and “areas that enhance the guest experience,” Masino said, with the team aiming to return to a “positive trajectory.”
Still, Cracker Barrel said it expects total revenue for fiscal 2026 of $3.35 billion to $3.45 billion, compared with the $3.52 billion analysts expected, and a same-store traffic decline of 4% to 7%.
The company faced backlash last month after it announced a complete rebrand, including a redesign of its logo and a remodeling of its restaurants.
The new logo scrapped the image of a man sitting on a wooden chair leaning against a barrel, instead moving to a simpler black-and-yellow logo featuring only “Cracker Barrel,” without the “Old Country Store.” It had been the company’s latest move in a “strategic transformation” announced in May 2024 to reenergize the brand.
The restaurants were also scheduled to undergo remodeling to align with the new vision.
But the rebrand came under intense scrutiny. Users on social media called it “soulless” and “generic,” and conservatives took to X to argue that the logo change was an attempt to remove the American identity of the brand to cater to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The stock sank in the wake of the changes.
Cracker Barrel’s old and new logo.
Courtesy: Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel responded to the criticism, saying that the company could have “done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be.” The chain said the man from the original logo, Uncle Herschel, would still be featured on the menu and part of the Cracker Barrel “family.”
President Donald Trump even weighed in on the situation, saying that Cracker Barrel “should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll) and manage the company better than ever before.”
The same day, the company announced a stunning reversal, shutting down the rebrand and retaining its original branding.
“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain,” the company said in a statement.
Masino said on the Wednesday call that four locations with the modern designs are already being reverted to the traditional “Old Timer” signage.
“That’s why our team pivoted quickly to switch back to our ‘Old Timer’ logo and has already begun executing new marketing, advertising and social media initiatives leaning into Uncle Herschel and the nostalgia around the brand with more to come,” Masino said on the Wednesday call.
She added that the company is launching “Front Porch Feedback” on Thursday to build on what Cracker Barrel has received over recent weeks. The new tool will allow reward members to comment directly to team members after every visit, Masino said.
The company also announced it was suspending all of its restaurant remodels.
Shares of the company rose after the reversal, mostly restoring its losses. Since its first announcement, Cracker Barrel lost and regained almost $100 million in market value.
“Cracker Barrel is not just an old country store or a restaurant,” Masino said. “It’s the front porch of America, and we take that very seriously.”
An aerial view of homes in San Francisco, Aug. 27, 2025.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
The share of U.S. homeowners with high rates on their mortgages has jumped sharply in just the last few years.
That’s having a marked impact on the refinance market and a somewhat more muted impact on home sales. Rates have been front and center in the debate over how to improve home affordability — and for good reason.
In 2022, after mortgage interest rates hit more than a dozen record lows, sparking a refinance bonanza, barely 10% of homeowners had 30-year fixed mortgages with rates above 5%. Just four years later, that share has jumped to over 30%, according to ICE Mortgage Technology. About 20% of borrowers have mortgages with a rate over 6%.
Home sales have been less than robust over the last few years, with the National Association of Realtors reporting a historically low 4.06 million sales last year, basically unchanged from 2024. This, after hitting a 15-year high of 6.12 million home sales in 2022.
More recent sales, combined with some cash-out refinancing, pushed the share of higher-interest-rate borrowers up.
There has been a major focus by the Trump administration to lower mortgage rates as a way to boost home affordability.
The president recently announced a plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy more than $200 billion in mortgage-backed bonds. It is still a subject of debate as to how much lower that would push mortgage rates once the purchase is made, but just the announcement alone caused rates to drop a bit.
Industry experts say the actual purchases could shave perhaps about an eighth of a percentage point off the current 30-year rate, putting it right around 6%. Last year at this time, the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was just over 7%, according to Mortgage News Daily.
If the average on the 30-year fixed moved to 6%, 5.5 million current homeowners would be able to benefit from a refinance, according to ICE Mortgage Technology. Those homeowners could save at least 75 basis points on their rate, which makes the fees involved financially worthwhile, it said.
If rates dropped to 5.88%, that number grows to 6.5 million homeowners.
“The most popular interest rate that’s been used to buy a home over the last 3.5 years is between 6.875% and 6.99%, right? Nobody wanted to tell their neighbors they used a 7% interest rate to buy a home, so everybody bought down into this high 6% range,” said Andy Walden, ICE Mortgage Technology’s head of mortgage and housing market research.
“Coincidentally, those 15-basis-point-spread moves from this $200 billion in MBS purchase is moving rates from what would have been six and a quarter right now down to six and an eighth. And so it’s providing meaningfully more refinance incentive than would otherwise be out there, and it’s having an oversized impact on the market,” he said.
Applications to refinance a home loan are now about 120% higher than they were one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
As for home sales, the last four years were characterized by the so-called rate “lock-in” effect, meaning potential sellers didn’t want to give up their historically low rates. They therefore put off moves that they might otherwise have wanted to make.
Entering 2025, there were roughly 39 million homeowners with an interest rate below 5% and roughly 12 million with an interest rate below 3%, according to Walden.
“If you look at how those borrowers behaved last year, only about 6% of those folks gave up those low rates, either through a refinance to pull equity out of their home or through the sale of their home. Close to 95% of homeowners held on to those rates tight,” he said.
As for prospective homebuyers, a 15-basis-point drop on the 30-year fixed rate would save only about $35 a month on the mortgage payment for the average-priced home. Alternately, they could keep the rate and buy 1.5% more home.
“Certainly a move in the right direction, but not a massive movement for those homebuyers,” said Walden.
Business
Rail modernisation: Railways plans 260 Vande Bharat sleeper rakes; phased rollout with advanced safety, comfort features – The Times of India
The government has planned to manufacture 260 rakes of Vande Bharat Sleeper trainsets as part of efforts to upgrade long-distance rail travel with advanced safety systems and passenger comfort features, according to Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.The programme will be executed in phases covering prototype development, testing, trials and series production. The sleeper variant is being developed through a coordinated manufacturing effort involving BEML, Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai and technology partners.
According to the official statement, the “development of new rolling stocks like Vande Sleeper necessitates a holistic approach, combining technological innovation, strategic planning and manufacturing to ensure a safe, reliable and comfortable travel.”The government said induction of Vande Bharat Sleeper trainsets into passenger services will be carried out in phases based on demand and operational readiness.“The process involves development of prototype, extensive testing and trials followed by series production,” the statement said.The project is part of the broader push to enhance passenger experience while improving operational efficiency and safety standards across the railway network.The new sleeper trainsets are being equipped with multiple advanced safety and passenger-centric features.These include semi-permanent jerk-free couplers and anti-climbers, KAVACH safety systems, and crashworthy coach design complying with EN safety standards. The trainsets will have fire barrier doors, aerosol-based fire detection and suppression systems in electrical cabinets and lavatories, and CCTV coverage across all coaches.The trains will also feature regenerative braking systems for energy efficiency and higher acceleration with a design speed of 180 kmph and operating speed of 160 kmph.Passenger comfort upgrades include centrally controlled automatic plug doors, fully sealed wider gangways, centrally monitored coach systems, and air-conditioning units fitted with indigenously developed UV-C lamp-based disinfection technology to improve hygiene inside coaches.Special provisions have been made for Divyangjan passengers, including dedicated lavatories in driving coaches, along with emergency talk-back units for passenger communication with the train manager or loco pilot during emergencies.
Millions could be entitled to compensation as a result of commission arrangements between lenders and dealers.
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