Cracker Barrel plans to broaden relevance through enhanced marketing messaging, menu innovation and new retail merchandise.

LEBANON, TENN. — Cracker Barrel Old Country Store finished fiscal 2016 on a strong note, but more will be done to strengthen the restaurant chain’s core business, chief executive officer Sandy Cochran said during a quarterly earnings call with analysts.

Sandy Cochran, c.e.o. of Cracker Barrel

“Our most important priority in fiscal 2017 will be enhancing our core business by broadening our relevance, to grow frequency of use across demographic groups and generations and by improving our business model to reduce operating costs and further drive margins,” Ms. Cochran said.

Cracker Barrel plans to broaden relevance through enhanced marketing messaging, menu innovation and new retail merchandise. A fully integrated marketing campaign will focus on demographic groups and generations that historically have been “light” users of Cracker Barrel, Ms. Cochran added.

“Second, we are using a dual messaging strategy that focuses on breakfast all day as well as choice and variety through our country dinner plates menu category,” she said. “Third, we are continuing to broaden our target demographic to include millennials in the multicultural communities through our spotlight music program, grassroots community programs and targeted advertising campaigns.”

Crack Barrel sis focusing on choice and variety through its country dinner plates menu category.

Lastly, Cracker Barrel plans to enhance its off-premise business, which includes the Heat n’ Serve holiday meal program that the company plans to implement system wide.

“Our strong equity and real homestyle foods and history as a destination for holiday occasions position us well for large party off-premise solutions,” Ms. Cochran said.

With more consumers choosing to eat at home, Ms. Cochran said she expects the holiday retail period to be challenging and competitive. Cracker Barrel is preparing for a heavily promotional retail environment by adjusting merchandising plans to include more aggressive mark downs, an assortment of home decor and apparel, a greater breadth of gifts assortment and updated Christmas merchandise offerings.

Cracker Barrel plans to implement its Heat n’ Serve holiday meal program system wide.

The company’s focus on enhancing its core business will result in business model improvements, Ms. Cochran said. Headwinds for fiscal 2017 include operating margin pressure in fiscal 2017 from continued and increasing wage inflation.

“We believe we can mitigate this margin pressure and further leverage our margins through realizing an additional $15 million to $20 million in cost savings by the end of the fiscal year,” Ms. Cochran said. “These will be partially offset by our planned 20-basis point increase in advertising spend as a per cent of revenue to support our fiscal year marketing efforts, and I’ll be sharing more specifics on these opportunities throughout the fiscal year.”

Fiscal 2017 also will entail Cracker Barrel expanding its footprint with seven to eight new stores. The company’s Holler & Dash fast-casual concept will further drive growth with the addition of four or five new locations in markets, including Orlando, Fla., and Nashville, Tenn.

Cracker Barrel plans to add four or five new Holler & Dash locations.

For the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended July 29, Cracker Barrel reported fourth-quarter net income of $51 million, or $2.12 per share, up 7.6% over prior year earnings per share of $1.97.

Revenue advanced 3.7% to $745.6 million, compared with revenue of $719.2 million reported a year ago.

Jill Golder, chief financial officer of Cracker Barrel, attributed revenue gains to positive comparable store sales growth and the net opening of two new stores. Comparable restaurant sales climbed 3.2%, Ms. Golder said, and an increase in average check of 4.4% offset a 1.2% decline in traffic. The increase in average check reflected menu price increases of approximately 2.4% and the favorable menu mix driven primarily by summer menu features such as the Campfire Chicken, Beef and Mixed Grill entrees in addition to the Fried Shrimp Platter, a core menu item, which was highlighted during the period.

Summer menu items such as the Cracker Barrel Campfire meals helped fuel sales during the quarter.

“As we believe the gap between food at home and food away from home prices has continued to rise and that the consumer will still look for value propositions in fiscal 2017, we have planned a deceleration in menu price increases from our previous two-year run rate and anticipate our fiscal 2017 menu pricing to be in the range of 1% to 2%.”

For the full year, GAAP net income was $189.3 million, or $7.86 per share, compared with $163.9 million or $6.82 per share, a year ago. Adjusted net income was $181.7 million, or $7.55 per share, compared to adjusted net income of $164 million, or $6.82 per share, in the prior year, representing a year-over-year increase in adjusted e.p.s. of 10.7%. Revenues for the fiscal year were $2.91 billion, an increase of 2.5% over the prior year.

Comparable store restaurant sales increased 2.2%, while average check climbed 3.5% higher. The higher average check was partially offset by a 1.3% decline in store traffic.