Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sandy Cochran: It’s less of one because we have fewer stores. But on each of the ones we have, it is a problem. We actually are delayed on one of our new units because it couldn’t pour the footings because of both weather and labor. So this is likely to be a problem for a little while longer, while the supply chain problems and the labor issues continue to work their way through the system.

Katherine Griffin: Got it. Okay. Thank you. I’ll hop back in the queue.

Operator: Our next question comes from Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Jake Bartlett: Great. Thanks for taking the question. My first is on the top line, and there’s still a very wide range for the year, which means a very, very wide range for the back half in terms of the revenue guidance. My rough math is just over 6% to just over 10% kind of range of revenue growth in the back half. Craig, you’ve — and Sandy you’ve talked about kind of the volatility of results kind of leading to some of that caution on the wide range. But it seems like the volatility we’ve seen so far has been to the upside, given the really strong January. What are some signs that give you concern about demand and kind of lead you to keep that range so wide even though that we have half the year in the bag.

Craig Pommells: Hi. Good morning, Jake. The — you said it actually when you set it up, the underlying environment is much more volatile than is normal. And I think given that volatility, that just implies to us a wider range. It kind of goes hand in hand. Our experience so far of this fiscal has been that we’re meeting our expectations. But the path from A to B, as we saw in January, for example, there’s more movement than normal. As we think about our second half of the year, there are some assumptions built in that if they — to the degree that they play out very positively, will put us in the high end of the range and to the degree that they don’t would put us on the low end of the range or maybe even put some risks. For example, in the second half of the year, we’re going to be comping on the effects of the Ukraine war, which impacted gas prices, specifically, which impacts how folks travel and what they do while they’re on their travel trip.

And we also saw a sharp negative sentiment from our over 65 guests. And they were monitoring that, and it really had a negative halo in their minds in their outlook for their financial future. So our expectation — in our guidance, there is an expectation that we’re going to comp over that and that will be a positive. Now to the degree that there is something else that’s negative that offsets that, then that would impact us negatively.

Jake Bartlett: Got it. Got it. Okay. And then I wanted to dig in a little bit more on the commodity and the COGS new guidance. If you can tell us what you have contracted at this point? I think the last time you spoke, it was roughly 45% but if you could just give us an idea of what’s contracted. And then also what we should look out for. So of the exposure out there, what are you most sensitive in the back that you don’t have contracted for that we can really monitor and see whether you’re kind of on track to hit that guidance?