Kekst and Company is bolstering the media defense of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. as the company’s largest shareholder mounts a PR offensive to land a board seat.
Sardar Biglari, who heads a San Antonio-based investment firm that owns 9.3% of Cracker Barrel and has a reputation for turning around the Steak n Shake restaurant company, launched EnhanceCrackerBarrel.com on Sept. 13 and released a letter to CB shareholders hitting company leadership as lacking “accountability, transparency, and stock ownership” and pitching himself for a board seat.
Biglari also took at shot at the company for hiring Kekst among a spate of “the most expensive lawyers and financial advisors.”
“We, on the other hand, do not outsource thinking,” Biglari wrote to shareholders.
Cracker Barrel said it worked to avoid a proxy fight with Biglari by offering him two director slots, which he turned down.
“The Board is disappointed that Mr. Biglari refused our good faith offer and, instead, determined to initiate a disruptive and costly proxy contest at the expense of all of Cracker Barrel’s shareholders and his own,” said CB chairman and CEO Michael Woodhouse.
CB’s fiscal year revenues reported in late July were essentially flat over 2011 at $612.9M.