Category: Food Delivery & Takeout

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. – Chipotle Mexican Grill unveiled a new all-electric restaurant design that utilizes renewable energy from wind and solar power through the purchase of renewable energy credits. Restaurants with the new features recently opened in Gloucester, Va., and Jacksonville, Fla., with a third location opening later this summer in Castle Rock, Colo.

“With our aggressive development goal in North America, we hold ourselves accountable to reduce the environmental impact of our restaurants,” said Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer at Chipotle. “We are aiming to incorporate some elements of our responsible restaurant design into many of our new restaurant openings going forward.”

The concept, which Chipotle is calling “responsible restaurant design,” includes key features such as:

• Rooftop solar panels, where feasible
• All-electric equipment and systems to replace gas power
• Heat pump water heaters
• Smaller electric cookline and improved exhaust hoods compared to other Chipotle kitchens
• Energy management systems (which have already been deployed in most existing restaurant locations)
• Biodegradable service ware such as cutlery, straws, bowls, cups and lids
• Cactus leather chairs
• Artwork made from recycled rice husks  
• Electric vehicle charging stations at select locations

Chipotle said the new restaurant design pilot will help the company progress toward its science-based targets, established in alignment with Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), to reduce direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030 compared to a 2019 baseline.

Chipotle said the company will leverage new restaurant openings to scale the company’s overall impact; Chipotle has an aggressive development goal of eventually growing to 7,000 locations in North America, with plans to have more than 100 of its new locations in 2024 utilizing all-electric equipment and at least some additional elements from its new design. Chipotle added it will continue to innovate and iterate on the new design over time.

To promote the company’s sustainability initiatives, Chipotle also launched a new short film called “Human Nature” that will air as a national TV ad. The film features side-by-side shots of humans and nature, emphasizing their aesthetic similarities while conveying the importance of individuals reconnecting physically and emotionally with the environment.

“Since its founding in 1993, Chipotle’s mindset and approach to food has always been about working with — not against — nature and using real ingredients free of any artificial flavors, colors or preservatives,” said Chris Brandt, chief marketing officer. “‘Human Nature celebrates how Chipotle serves food that is both good for you and better for the planet. Strengthening our connection with nature is key to producing responsibly raised food for generations to come.”

Chipotle also published its 2022 Sustainability Report, which showcases its efforts in three categories: People, Food and Animals, and the Environment. The full report can be found here.

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. – Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. announced the appointment of Frank Yiannas to its Food Safety Advisory Council on April 13. Yiannas is the fifth member of the council, which is comprised of independent food safety experts tasked with ensuring Chipotle’s food safety practices evolve with the times and serve as the blueprint for the foodservice sector.  Earlier this year, Yiannis resigned from his role as the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) deputy commissioner for food policy and response, a position he held since 2018. In the 30 years before joining the FDA, he served in food safety and leadership roles with Walmart and The Walt Disney Co.  

Yiannas is the newest addition to the council, which includes David Acheson, MD, former FDA Associate Commissioner of Foods; Elisabeth Hagen, MD, former United States Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Food Safety; Hal King, PhD, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Research Scientist and Director of Food Safety with Chick-fil-A; and James Marsden, PhD, former Head of Food Safety at Chipotle and distinguished professor.

Kerry Bridges, vice president of food safety with Chipotle, said maintaining the company’s bench of food safety advisors is a priority.

“In order to make sure our food safety culture and programs are as robust as possible, it’s critical to supplement our internal expertise with independent external guidance,” he said. “Frank’s vast experience with the FDA and other large brands will help guarantee Chipotle’s food safety standards continue to be best in class.”

“I’m delighted to join and collaborate with some of the nation’s foremost food safety authorities and serve on Chipotle’s Food Safety Advisory Council,” Yiannas said. “I look forward to lending my experience to a company committed to ‘cultivating a better world’ that benefits people and the planet.”

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. — Earlier this year, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. unveiled a new menu offering inspired by two TikTok content creators. The digital-exclusive fajita quesadilla adds peppers and onions, plus a side of the chipotle-honey vinaigrette customarily served with its salads, to the standard quesadilla, which typically features cheese and pork, beef, chicken or tofu.

The genius of the now-permanent addition to Chipotle’s menu, said Brian R. Niccol, chairman and chief executive officer, is the product is made with existing ingredients in the restaurants’ kitchens. Only a few tweaks to the digital ordering technology were required.

“For the most part, this was a really easy one for operators to execute,” Niccol said during an April 25 earnings call. “So, the team is doing some work to figure out other opportunities like that within our menu and maybe could apply for both the frontline and the digital line. I do believe there’s still a lot of hidden gems within the Chipotle menu. And I think we have the opportunity to talk about them in a more visible way.”

The launch of the fajita quesadilla resulted in a near doubling of total quesadilla sales and “two of our top digital sales days of all time,” he added.

As management continues to focus on the fundamentals of its operations, opportunities to introduce innovation with little complexity are a priority. A limited-time offering of chicken al pastor, as another example, combines the brand’s grilled chicken with a spicy marinade. That item has been “broadly appealing” to both new and existing customers, Niccol said.

Net income for the first quarter ended March 31 was $291.6 million, equal to $10.56 per share on the common stock, up 84% from $158.3 million, or $5.64, in the prior-year period. Restaurant-level margin benefited from higher sales, labor efficiencies and lower avocado prices, said John R. Hartung, chief financial officer.

Total revenue increased 17% to $2.4 billion from $2 billion.

Comparable restaurant sales increased 11%, as in-store sales grew 23% over the last year, and digital sales represented 39% of sales. The company opened 41 new restaurants during the quarter.

Executives expect second-quarter and full-year comparable restaurant sales growth in the mid- to high-single-digit range and are planning 255 to 285 new restaurant openings in 2023.

Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill on the New York Stock Exchange were trading as high as $2,047.31 on April 26, up 15% from the day before.

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. — Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is testing technology that will automate some of the operations in its restaurants. An automated digital makeline, recently installed at the company’s test kitchen and design lab, assembles burrito bowls, potentially offering increased capacity and improved speed and accuracy, said Brian R. Niccol, chairman and chief executive officer.

Another tool under development cuts, cores and scoops avocadoes and, Niccol said, “could save time and eliminate a less favorable task, but still allow for one of their favorite parts of the job, which is to add in chopped onions, jalapenos and cilantro, seasoned with some citrus and salt, and hand mash our signature guac.”

Both require iterations prior to rolling out to restaurants, Niccol said, noting the test kitchen team “did a great job of kind of pressure testing all aspects” of a prototype of the automated makeline.

“We learned a lot, right?” he said. “There’s work to be done on how you export things. There’s work to be done on how you clean it. There’s work to be done on how we actually provide portions. And the good news is this is why we use the stage-gate process so that we learn, we iterate and then hopefully, we get to a faster solution. So, I’m excited to see what the next prototype holds, but the team is working on some of those key things that we learned on.”

John R. Hartung, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer, said in the medium or long term he sees the technology as “opportunities for us to try to offset some of the labor inflation.”

The executives detailed the initiatives during an Oct. 26 conference call with securities analysts to discuss third-quarter financial results.

Net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 was $313.22 million, equal to $11.37 per share on the common stock, up 22% from $257.14 million, or $9.26, in the prior-year period. The current quarter included unusual expenses related to corporate restructuring.

Total revenue advanced 11% to $2.47 billion from $2.22 billion the year before.

Comparable restaurant sales increased 5%, driven by higher transactions and an increase in average check.

During the quarter, the company opened 62 new restaurants, including 54 locations with a Chipotlane drive-thru pickup option.

Net income for the nine-month period was $946.65 million, equal to $34.31 per share, up 41% from $675.37 million, or $24.20 per share, in the comparable period. Total revenue increased 14% to $7.36 billion from $6.45 billion.