Cracker Barrel’s Corporate Team Drew on Military Training for Hurricane Florence Response

As Hurricane Florence approached landfall last week, communities in Virginia and the Carolinas were bracing themselves for high winds, record rainfall and the potential for serious flooding. Businesses in the path of the storm prepared for closures and evacuations through strategic planning, Cracker Barrel among them. A CNBC article detailed the corporate-owned full-service restaurant chain’s emergency response plan that was enacted early and systematically to protect employees above all.

Cracker Barrel CEO Sandy Cochran is a former Army captain and its team includes several former soldiers. She drew on her tactical experience in planning for Florence, saying, “Unfortunately we do it often. It’s like a checklist. No one is sitting around wondering what are we going to do, everyone knows.”

Early in the week, Cracker Barrel’s crisis operations response team that grows to as big as 20 people during times of catastrophic events like Florence identified the restaurants and employees with a chance of being affected. HR contacted each of those roughly 1,000 people to aid in evacuation efforts or provide resources in the event that wasn’t possible, security and loss prevention specialists secured the stores early in the week and logistics teams worked to halt shipments and redirect deliveries.

Cracker Barrel has closed 15 stores in the Carolinas so far with five more that opened on a delay.

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