“The Southern Bowls product line will be featured as our spring menu promotion, highlighting three signature offerings — a Fried Chicken Benedict Bowl, a Ham n’ Maple Bacon Bowl, and a Sausage, Grits Cakes and Green Tomato Gravy Bowl,” she explained. “We believe these offerings will appeal to both our core guests and to diverse and younger consumers, providing new news in the market and driving increased frequency of visit. The introduction of Southern Bowls will be supported with an integrated advertising schedule.”
Executives at the casual dining chain also plan to continue with an off-premise platform that includes catering, to-go ordering and the heat ‘n serve program. Cochrane spoke of the company’s focus on off-premise efforts, which have delivered favorable sales results over the last two years. The platform offers consumers Cracker Barrel home-style meals for small groups of six to 10 or large groups of 18 of 24. The meals can be ordered online or in-store and include on-tray offerings such as ham, egg and cheese casserole, chicken and dumplings or roast beef with gravy.
Cochran said the system-wide rollout of the off-premise program was completed in October. The company is supporting the program with full-menu online ordering for large parties in addition to individual to-go offerings. The program clearly is resonating with diners, according to Cochran.
“We anticipate continued growth this year during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter holidays,” Cochran said. “We plan to support growth in off-premise through marketing efforts like our social and digital messaging, geo-targeted consumer emails and in-store collateral — and we anticipate off-premise sales to be a primary component of our full-year sales growth target.”
