Chipotle Mexican Grill

In 2011, Steve Ells was a judge for the TV show America's Next Great Restaurant and investor of ANGR Holdings, the company that will be running the winning concept's restaurants. Chipotle has agreed to purchase Ells' investment in ANGR at his cost, provide support for ANGR operations, and invest a total of $2.3 million in cash contributions.[56] The winning concept, Soul Daddy, was quickly closed after operating for less than 5 weeks.[57]

In September 2011, Chipotle opened an Asian fast-casual concept restaurant named ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen in Washington, D.C.[58] The company has said the new restaurant "would follow the Chipotle service format and its focus on 'food with integrity' in ingredients."[59] Chipotle's plan was to start with only one store, and see how the restaurant works out before expanding the concept.[60]

On December 18, 2013, the company revealed that it had opened its first fast-food pizza chain in Denver back in May 2013. According to Associated Press, Chipotle partnered with a local full-service restaurant called Pizzeria Locale to create a fast-food version of the eatery, keeping its name. The company plans to open at least two more pizzerias in the Denver area.[61]

In April 2014, Chipotle announced an increase in menu prices for the first time in nearly three years, due to increasing costs for steak, avocados, and cheese. The price increase was expected to be rolled out from the end of second quarter of 2014 through the end of the third quarter.[62] In late 2015, Chipotle expanded its mobile strategy through delivery partnerships with tech startups like Tapingo, a delivery service that targets college campuses.[63]

On July 29, 2016, the company announced the opening of its first Tasty Made burger restaurant in the fall. Chipotle was still dealing with the various virus outbreaks with additional marketing. The company was also reducing the number of new stores for the year from 235 to 220.[64]

The newer restaurant concepts did not perform as well as expected so that ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen and Tasty Made were respectively closed in March 2017[65] and February 2018[66] leaving only Pizzeria Locale operating besides the parent company.

Chipotle Mexican Grill in Canada

In August 2008, Chipotle opened its first location outside of the United States in Toronto.[10] The second location in Toronto–and in all of Canada–was not opened until 2010.[68]

The first Canadian location outside of the Toronto area was opened in Vancouver in December 2012.[71] A second Vancouver-area location was opened in Burnaby in October 2014[72] followed by a third in Surrey in January 2016,[73] a fourth in Langley in October 2016,[74] and a fifth in West Vancouver in March 2018.[75]

The first location in the nation's capital of Ottawa was opened in February 2017 at the Rideau Centre.[76]

Chipotle rapidly expanded in the Greater Toronto area, and is still opening new locations. As of 2018, there are 11 locations in Toronto, 2 in Vaughan, 2 in Mississauga, 1 in Oakville, and 1 location in Markham.

The second Chipotle Mexican Grill location in London, located on Baker Street

Chipotle expanded to Europe with the first European restaurant opening in May 2010 in London.[8][77][78] A second location opened in London in September 2011.[79] The following year, three additional locations were quickly opened in the London area.[80] After this growth spurt, the rate of further expansion in London slowed greatly with the sixth location appearing in 2013[81] and the seventh in June 2015.[82] Although Chipotle blames the slow growth in the United Kingdom on the British unfamiliarity with Mexican foods,[83] several locally owned burrito chains had opened locations across the United Kingdom during the same interval.[84]

The first location in France opened in Paris in May 2012.[12][85]

Expansion in France was much slower than that in the United Kingdom or Canada, with a second location in Paris opening in 2013[86] and a third location in 2014.[87] At 7,000 square feet, the restaurant at La Défense is, as of 2015, the largest Chipotle location in the world, while a typical Chipotle restaurant is usually between 2,200 and 2,500 square feet.[88] A fourth Parisian location was opened in Levallois-Perret in 2015[89] followed by a fifth[90] and a sixth[91] Parisian location in 2016, both in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

The first location in Germany opened up in Frankfurt's Skyline Plaza shopping mall in August 2013.[11][69]

A second location opened in Frankfurt's MyZeil shopping mall in April 2019.[92]

All of Chipotle's restaurants are company-owned, rather than franchised.[100] As of December 2012, 1430 restaurants have since opened throughout the United States and Canada, with locations in 43 states, Ontario, British Columbia, and the District of Columbia.[101][102]

The field team are the employees who work closely with but not directly within specific restaurants. The field support system includes apprentice team leaders (step up from restaurateurs), team leaders or area managers, team directors and regional directors (not atypical for them to oversee more than fifty locations).[103] Because Chipotle does not franchise, all restaurants are corporately owned. Thus, whenever Chipotle is in the process of launching a new location, the field team hires a new general manager and trains them at a current location so that they will be ready for the new location when it opens for business. The corporate office takes care of finding and funding new locations as well.[104]

In 2003, a Center for Science in the Public Interest report stated that Chipotle's burritos contain over 1,000 calories, which is nearly equivalent to two meals' worth of food.[135][136] MSNBC Health.com placed the burritos on their list of the "20 Worst Foods in America" because of their high caloric content and high sodium.[137] When a burrito with carnitas, rice, vegetables, cheese, guacamole, and salsa was compared with a typical Big Mac, the burrito had more fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, and sodium than the Big Mac, but it also had more protein and fiber.[138] The restaurant has also received praise – Health.com included the restaurant in its list of the "Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants".[139]

Chipotle's vegetarian options include rice, black beans, fajita vegetables (onions and bell peppers), salsa, guacamole and cheese.[140] All items other than the meats, cheese, sour cream, and honey vinaigrette dressing are vegan.[140] As of late 2013, Chipotle developed a new cooking strategy for the pinto beans, eliminating the bacon and making them vegetarian and vegan-friendly.[141] The cheese is processed with vegetable-based rennet in order to be suitable for vegetarians.[140] In April 2010, Chipotle began testing a vegan "Garden Blend" option, which is a plant-based meat alternative marinated in chipotle adobo, at six locations in the U.S.[142][143] The flour tortillas used for the burritos and soft tacos are the only items that contain gluten.[140]

In 1999, while looking for ways to improve the taste of the carnitas,[20] founder Steve Ells was prompted by an article written by Edward Behr to visit Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).[144] Ells found the CAFOs "horrific", and began sourcing from open-range pork suppliers. This caused an increase in both the price and the sales of the carnitas burritos.[77]

In 2001, Chipotle released a mission statement called Food With Integrity, which highlighted Chipotle's efforts to increase their use of naturally raised meat, organic produce, and dairy without added hormones.[7] Chipotle only uses the leg and thigh meat from its chickens; the breast meat is sold to Panera Bread.[145]

Customers at a Chipotle restaurant in Fredericksburg, Virginia

Ells has testified before the United States Congress in support of the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, which aims to reduce the amount of antibiotics given to farm animals.[77][146]

Since 2006, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a Floridian farmworker organization, has protested Chipotle's refusal to sign a Fair Food agreement, which would commit the restaurant chain to pay a penny-per-pound premium on its Florida tomatoes to boost tomato harvesters' wages, and to only buy Florida tomatoes from growers who comply with the Fair Food Code of Conduct.[147] In 2009, the creators of the documentary film Food, Inc. (along with 31 other leaders in the sustainable food movement) signed an open letter of support for the CIW's campaign, stating that, "If Chipotle is sincere in its wishes to reform its supply chain, the time has come to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as a true partner in the protection of farmworkers rights."[148] In September 2009, Chipotle announced that it would sidestep partnership with the CIW and instead work directly with East Coast Growers and Packers to increase wages for its tomato pickers.[149] Ells framed the dispute as a fundamental issue of control, stating that, "the CIW wants us to sign a contract that would let them control Chipotle's decisions regarding food in the future."[150] In October 2012, Chipotle signed an agreement with the CIW and became the 11th company to join the organization's Fair Food Program.[151]

In January 2015, Chipotle pulled carnitas from its menu in a third of its restaurants; company officials cited animal welfare problems at one of the suppliers, found during a regular audit, as the reason.[152] Subsequently, a false rumor spread online claiming it was done to appease Muslims who consider pork to be unclean, leading to some protests on social media.[153] The company still uses antibiotic-free and hormone-free steak in its restaurants, despite being briefly forced to "serve beef that is not naturally raised" during the summer of 2013, posting an in-store notice each time that occurred.[154] Roberto Ferdman of The Washington Post opined that Chipotle's stated mission to sell "food with integrity" may be "untenable" if meat producers continue to breach Chipotle's ethical standards.[152]

Also in 2015, Chipotle stopped using genetically modified corn and soy beans in their foods, claiming to be the first nationwide restaurant to cook completely GMO free.[155] This was done in response to increasing consumer demand for GMO free products.

In March and April 2008, the Community Epidemiology Branch of the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency traced a hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego County to a single Chipotle restaurant located in La Mesa, California in which 22 customers were infected with the virus.[169][170]

In 2008, Chipotle was implicated in a norovirus outbreak in Kent, Ohio, where over 400 people became ill after eating at a Chipotle restaurant.[171] Officials at the Ohio Department of Health said that the outbreak was caused by Norovirus Genotype G2.[172] Many of the victims were students at Kent State University.[173] The initial source of the outbreak was never found.

In 2009, an investigation by the Minnesota Department of Health traced an outbreak of campylobacteriosis to a Chipotle Mexican Grill in Apple Valley, Minnesota.[174][175][176] The investigation found that chicken was sometimes served undercooked by the restaurant and determined that lettuce which had been cross-contaminated with raw or undercooked chicken was the vector for the outbreak.[177][178]

In early November 2015, The Oregonian reported that there was a little-known E. coli outbreak that had occurred earlier in July in which five people were infected with the O157:H7 strain of E. coli. The outbreak was traced to a single Chipotle location in Seattle and that the incident was not publicized at that time.[179][180] Seattle public health officials defended their actions at that time by saying that the outbreak was over by the time they made an association with Chipotle. Health officials were unable to trace the source of the July outbreak and said that the cause of the July outbreak is unrelated to the October/November outbreak.[179]

Another norovirus outbreak was confirmed to have occurred in August 2015 at a Simi Valley, California location in which 80 customers and 18 employees reported becoming ill.[181][182] Ventura County health inspectors found various health violations during two inspections following the outbreak report.[183] Despite those violations, the county health officials did not close the restaurant and allowed it to continue to operate.[181] In a January 2016 article, The New York Times reported that the number of victims involved in the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak was actually 207, twice the number that was reported earlier.[184]

In an unusual move, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration has gotten a federal grand jury to issue a subpoena in January 2016 as part of a criminal investigation seeking documents and information from Chipotle concerning the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak.[184][185] As of January 2016, it is too early to tell which organization is the actual target of the investigation. In most cases involving norovirus outbreaks that involved a single location, state and/or local authorities are the usual jurisdiction responsible in the investigation and prosecution of those type of cases. However, Ventura County officials had been criticized for their handling of parts of their investigation, and for allowing the restaurant to continue to operate after finding health violations during consecutive inspections.

Less than two weeks later, a federal class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California claiming that Chipotle knowingly allowed an ill kitchen manager to work for two days before sending that person home. Then, the restaurant actively deep-cleaned the restaurant to remove all traces of contamination prior to notifying the Ventura County Environmental Health Division of the existing outbreak, hindering their investigation. The lawsuit also claimed that the number of known victims was as high as 234 and estimates that the number of meals that the infected employee may have come in contact with could be as high 3,000.[186][187][188]

At almost the same time as the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak, Minnesota health officials confirmed a Salmonella outbreak that affected 17 Minneapolis-area Chipotle restaurants in mid-August 2015. The source of the outbreak was traced back to contaminated tomatoes that were grown in Mexico.[189][190] The Minnesota Department of Health reported that samples from 45 victims were tested and found that their illness was caused by the Salmonella Newport bacterium as determined by DNA profiling.[191] Later, the state officials reported that the total of persons who became infected was increased to 64 and the number Chipotle locations in which they had acquired the bacterium was increased to 22, all located within the state of Minnesota.[192]

In October 2015, at least 22 people were reported to have gotten sick after eating at several different Chipotle locations in the states of Washington and Oregon. At that time, an epidemiologist for the Washington State Department of Health said the culprit appeared to be a Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli bacterium, but they were still waiting the outcome of several laboratory tests before they could give a definitive result.[193][194][195] As a precaution, Chipotle had closed 43 stores in Washington and Oregon pending the results and recommendations of the involved health authorities. On November 5, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had reported that the number of persons reported ill had risen to 40 known cases and that the bacteria samples taken from 7 infected persons in Washington and 3 persons in Oregon states were confirmed to be infected by the same strain of E. coli, the Shiga toxin-producing STEC O26 strain, as determined by DNA profiling.[196] At least 12 persons required hospitalization, but no fatalities. As of November 2015, Health authorities were still trying to trace the exact source of the bacterial contamination, but suspected fresh produce.[197]

On November 12, the CDC increased the number of known cases to 50, the number of persons requiring hospitalization to 14, and the number of DNA fingerprint confirmations to 33.[198] Through a match via Pulsenet, the DNA fingerprint also matched a recent case in Minnesota, but the ill person did not eat at Chipotle. The source of the bacteria infection still had not yet been determined at the time of the report released by the CDC and the CDC is trying to use the more definitive, but more time-consuming whole genome sequencing procedure to see if they are able to determine the relationships between all of the STEC O26 cases. In the meantime, Chipotle reopened the closed restaurants on November 11 after disposing all of the food within the closed facilities and deep cleaning those facilities.[199]

On November 20, the CDC reported that the number of STEC O26 cases, as determined by DNA fingerprinting, had increased to 45 with 16 persons requiring hospitalization and the total number states being affected had increased to six.[200] Besides Oregon and Washington, new cases were reported in the states of Minnesota, California, New York, and Ohio.[201] 43 out of 45 of the affected individuals had reported that they had eaten at a Chipotle in the week before they had become sick.

On December 4, the CDC reported that the number of STEC O26 cases, as determined by DNA fingerprinting, had increased to 52 with 20 persons requiring hospitalization and the total number states being affected had increased to nine.[202] New cases were reported in the states of California (1), Illinois (1), Maryland (1), Ohio (2), Pennsylvania (1), and Washington (1).[203]

The price of shares for Chipotle stock dropped a further 12% immediately after the CDC had issued their update on November 20.[204] Share prices had been dropping since the initial announcement of the E. coli outbreak in late October with investors unsure if the drop in share prices just a temporary aberration and that Chipotle management is handling the incident as well as they could. Chipotle has since hired a consultant to improve their food safety program and have their program reviewed by both the CDC and FDA.[205]

On February 1, 2016, the CDC official closed their investigations on the larger E. coli that started in Pacific Northwest in October 2015 and also the smaller outbreak that started in Kansas and Oklahoma in November since no new cases were reported since December 1.[206] In their final report, the CDC stated that 55 persons in 11 states were infected with the same strain of STEC O26 during the major outbreak with 21 of those persons requiring hospitalization. The five persons infected in the later outbreak were made ill by a genetically different strain of STEC O26. The CDC also reported that federal and local health and food safety authorities were unable to detect traces of the microorganisms in any of the food samples taken from the suspected restaurants or from their supply chain. The CDC, FDA, and the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service were unable to determine a point source that was in common in the meals that were consumed by all the victims since some of the restaurants were located far apart and had obtained some of their ingredients from different suppliers while other consumers of the suspected suppliers were not affected.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on December 21 that five more people became ill after eating at two Chipotle restaurants located in Kansas and Oklahoma in late November. Preliminary DNA fingerprinting results appear to indicated that the newer cases were caused by a different strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O26. Scientists are waiting for the results of the more definitive whole genome sequencing analyses to determine if the organisms responsible for this outbreak are genetically related to the E. coli that are responsible for causing the outbreak that had started in Oregon and Washington in late October and thus an extension of that outbreak. The agency has not yet determined which food is responsible for the outbreak.[207] The Food and Drug Administration reported that they are trying to determine how the bacteria in these cases, along with the earlier Oregon, Washington, and other multi-state cases, might have been propagated through the food supply chain.[208]

The closed restaurant on December 16, 2015

In December 2015, eighty students at Boston College, including members of the men's basketball team, were sickened after eating at a single Chipotle restaurant. Affected students had been tested for both E. coli and norovirus in order to determine the cause of the illnesses.[209][210] Although it would take as long as two days before the results of more definitive tests became known, public health investigators reported that preliminary tests pointed to the presence of norovirus.[211] The health inspectors for the City of Boston had since closed this particular location on December 7 for a number of health violations that included maintaining meats at a too low of a temperature on the serving line and for allowing a sick employee to work at the time of the inspection.[212]

On December 10, officials from the Boston Public Health Commission reported that tests had identified a single strain of norovirus that is responsible for this particular outbreak.[213] Boston Globe reported on December 10 that 141 persons were reported to have gotten ill and that some of the newer victims had not visited Chipotle before contracting the virus[214] and most likely became infected by being in close proximity to someone who had gotten ill at Chipotle, such as a roommate or dorm-mate.[213] Boston authorities traced the cause of the outbreak to a sick employee who was allowed to work on the day of the outbreak. Chipotle has since fired the employee and also the manager who knowingly allowed the ill worker to complete his shift instead of following health codes.[215]

On February 8, 2016, Chipotle closed all of its eateries nationwide for a few hours during the morning for an all-staff meeting on food safety.[216] The company hired a new head of food safety, who instituted changes including having all employees wash hands every half hour, having two employees verify that produce like onions, jalapeños and avocados have been immersed in hot water for five seconds to kill germs on their exteriors, and using Pascalization to pre-treat food ingredients.[217]

Since the series of food-poisoning outbreaks in 2015 lowered trust in the product, Chipotle has tried to lure back its customers with free food and heavier advertising. Same-store sales increased 17.8% percent in the first quarter of 2017.[218]

Despite corrective actions, the company faced another setback in implementing their safe food policies in July 2017. A norovirus outbreak is being investigated in Virginia. More than 130 people reported having norovirus-like symptoms and two individuals had tested positive for the virus after eating at a Chipotle restaurant in Sterling, Virginia. The Loudoun County Health Department confirmed the illnesses from July 13–16, 2017. Shares of Chipotle's stock stumbled more than 10% on this news[219][220] and also the news that customers had posted videos of mice skittering through a Chipotle restaurant in Dallas just a few days before the norovirus incident was reported.[221][222] On July 25, several news agencies reported that Chipotle officials confirmed that the "recent norovirus outbreak in Virginia was the result of lax sick policy enforcement by store managers" and that the company believed that an employee was the cause of the outbreak.[223][222]

In late July 2018, Ohio public health officials launched an investigation after receiving 368 complaints from customers after they had eaten at a Powell, Ohio, location.[224] By mid-August, the U.S. Center for Disease Control identified the bacteria that cause the outbreak which had affected over 700 people as Clostridium perfringens.[225] This food borne outbreak has been called the worst incident to date that can be traced to a single restaurant location.[226][227]

In May 2006, Chipotle filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the company may have experience theft of credit and debit card data that might have existed as far back as 1999, when the company first accepted credit and debit cards as payment, until August 2004 when the merchant bank that process their credit and debit card transactions had informed Chipotle of the possible theft of credit and debit card information. Although the Chipotle claimed that there was no proof that theft of credit and debit card information had actually occurred, the results of outside forensic auditing firms concluded that the company's use of flawed card processing software and the use of unsecured internet gateways by some of their computers may have made their information systems at the affected restaurants vulnerable during periods before August 2004. The company spent $5.5 million to settle legal claims, and pay fines and related legal fees.[229] The general public was not informed of the company's data security problems when the company first became aware of the situation.

In April 2017, Chipotle first announced that their point of sale payment system was compromised during a three-week period from late March to mid-April but gave very little information about the incident.[230][231] The following month, the company later revealed that 2,250 restaurants in 47 states were involved which could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of customers who may had their credit or debit card account information with security codes stolen.[232][233][234][235] A few restaurants in Canada were also affected.[236] Some security experts criticized the way Chipotle had downplayed the incident.[233] During the same month, a credit union in New Hampshire filed a class action lawsuit on the behalf of banks and credit unions against Chipotle for failure to provide elementary credit card data security in the most recent data breach after a similar data breach that had occurred in 2004.[228] In July 2017, Gainesville, Florida, police reported that an unidentified person took more than $17,000 from an ATM at a local credit union by stealing from 40 different accounts that can be traced directly to the data breach.[237][238]