Chipotle Case Study Essay

Chipotle saw an opportunity in the fast-casual restaurant industry and launched an innovative concept. It believes that fresh and quality ingredients are key and that customers are willing to pay more for such ingredients. To ensure such ingredients, Chipotle uses a large amount of organic food in their restaurants. This not only creates fresher and healthier food options for consumers, but also assists local farms that supply the organic food. Not only does Chipotle use organic food, but it uses produce that is in season. This reduces the costs of transporting produce and ensures that the ingredients are fresh. While competitors attempt to replicate the menu, style, and flavors of Chipotle, they do not have the resources to use organic ingredients as efficiently as Chipotle does. This is one strength of

Chipotle Mexican Grill is one the fastest growing restaurant businesses in the United States. Chipotle Mexican Grill was founded by the current CEO, Steve Ells, in 1993. Chipotle headquarters are located at 1401 Wynkoop Street, Denver, Colorado 80202. The company operates in the restaurant industry and more specifically the fast casual Mexican restaurant market.

In the year of 2005, the total revenue of Chipotle was $627.7 Million dollars. "Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG-$53.50 a share) was a January spin-off with an initial public offering price of $22 -- from McDonald's, the largest retailer of hamburger buns in the world. By year-end 2004, CMG had 387 locations, generated $470 million in revenues and earned 21 cents a share."(Berko) Last year, CMG had 485 locations that produced $627.70 million the growth revenue was at 33.40% in 2005. "pushing tacos, burritos, salads, plus huge helpings of tired rice and boring beans reporting net income of 78 cents a share. This year, CMG expects to earn 71 cents a share and, according to Prudential Securities, CMG will report $1 billion in 2007 revenues (that's a lot of beans) and post higher earnings of 98 cents a share." (Berko) Although Chipotle is at an all time high I believe that it may well be trading its shares at to high of a price. Mcdonalds the best and most efficiently run profitable fast food restaurant is trading their shares at 17 times earnings. Today Chipotle is trading at an outstanding $56.07 Per share. I don't believe Chipotle is worth anything over $30 a share. Although the price of chipotle stock is too high there should still be a hefty revenue at year end 2007. Predictions suggest 1 Billion dollars. For 2005

Due to the fact that Chipotle is worried about providing customers with the best possible ingredients and in the same time, concerned of taking care about environment, animals as well as farmers, which in this case, are the main suppliers, we can encapsulate Chipotle in a Sociocultural segment.

The Oregon and Washington cases reported so far have come from six restaurant, but spokesman Chris Arnold of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a statement Saturday that the company has closed 43 restaurants

Officials are still working on confirming the specific source of the outbreak. They believe it to have been an “undisclosed ingredient,” and Chipotle has resourced the item being investigated.

The amazing service that chipotle has is great. The line in Chipotle can be a mile long and it will only take ten minutes to go through the line. Also you can phone in your order it is ready for pickup once you arrive and you avoid the line. The workers are very polite the will most likely clear your table even though you are supposed to do it.

Hispanic Americans have a strong tie to their culture and display it in their cuisine. Rice and beans are staples to la familia, together they provide a complete protein, and are inexpensive. Spicy peppers and hot sauce provide antibacterial and digestive health qualities that were imperative to provide healthy meals in Mexico because the water supply isn’t guaranteed to be safe for drinking. Historically, many tomato products were introduced to the United States by Mexico, including burritos, tacos, other Mexican cuisine and even ketchup (Sowell, 1981).

Customers tend to only care about the size and the quantity of the food as well as its convenience rather than its quality. Most American consumers rarely know where the foods come from and what ingredients they contain. Most importantly,

Chipotle has opened their stores in few countries such as the UK, the US, Canada, Germany and France. It is now time for the corporation to follow the lead from other companies like Yum. Brands such as KFC and Taco Bell as well as McDonalds expand their footprint in the Asian market like Japan. For example, Chipotle operates less than 2,000 restaurants in only 5 countries, while McDonalds operates more than 35,000 restaurants in 119 countries, and Taco Bell, another Mexican restaurant, operates 6,500 restaurants in 20 countries which shows that the Chipotle could do better if it expands its business.

We depend on organic farmers to supply us with the necessary ingredients but our company first approves all our farmer suppliers based on quality specifications the company has set. Chipotle also prefers farms that are family owned and operated which I believe adds on to our good reputation. It shows that we value the importance of family or perhaps have more trust in a family owned farm which is a positive factor as well. The challenge with being specific about which farmers is that it can be difficult to source ingredients to meet the high standards in quantities that Chipotle needs. It is a good strategy when it comes to farmers for us to rely on different ones not just one supplier because one can never know when they can up their prices or have a major disaster occur that would become Chipotle 's disaster as well if we

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. is a “fast-food service restaurant” under limited service category. It was formed in 1993 and went public in 2006. It has the largest market share in the Mexican-type food segment with a net income of more than

Steve Ells is the founder and CEO of Chipotle. Steve is a trained chef and opened his first Chipotle store in 1993 at a former Dolly Madison ice cream store in Denver, Colorado. His goal was to serve high quality, delicious food quickly and in a “fast-casual” setting (Ells).

* High quality products with the best raw materials (naturally raised beef, pork and chicken)

The brand expanded into Canada after receiving success in America, and later opened their first store outside of America on December 2008 in London. They have expanded from one location, to now having five hundred and seventy eight locations across the globe.