Chipotle Mexican Grill is an American restaurants chain that offers a focused menu of burritos and tacos. The company was founded by Steve Ells in 1993 with a vision of “food with entirety”. The company started its operations in the state of Colorado when it launched its first Chipotle in the city of Denver. Over the course of next five years, the company expanded its operations and successfully launched its Chipotle restaurants at several locations across the state of Colorado. Impressed with the proof of Chipotle’s concept, McDonald's jumped on the wagon in 1998 by acquiring small stake in the company which was later converted into the controlling stake in 2000. Over the course of next several years, Chipotle expanded its operations rapidly …show more content…
Chipotle continued its rapid expansion and transformed itself as a multinational fast casual chain with over 1,400 locations. The company’s impressive expansion is indicated by its financial performance over the las five years. The company’s financial analysis indicates that the company is in sound financial position as evident by the company’s profitability ratios, all of which are showing positive trend over the review period. The company’s current ratio indicates that the company has enough resources to meet its current obligations while the company’s leverage ratios indicates that the company is able to maintain perfect balance between debt and equity which is also evident by the company impressive return on equity ratio. (see financial ratios, Attachment A). Chipotle is continuing with its growth strategy and continuously working to diversifying its principal business. Recently, the company started testing its ShopHouse initiative with an aim to further diversify its business and expand its customer base by attracting new demographics. (see Opportunities, Attachment …show more content…
Supply chain is very important for Chipotle’s operations because of the fact that the company is dealing with small number of suppliers when it comes to key ingredients. The supply chain is becoming inefficient due to the company’s large footprints. The company’s supply chain is also subject to shortages and price fluctuations which is great threat to smooth functioning of the company’s operations. (see Supplier’s Power, Attachment B). The company’s main challenge is to fight its current and future competition, in doing so, Chipotle has alternative choices. To deter competition, the company needs to find a ways to attract new customers and the best ways is to make Chipotle stand out among competition. In doing so, the company need to focus on new innovations and continuously work on developing new menu items. (see Threats, Attachment C). Alternatively, the company needs to further diversify its business and expand its line of Asian fast casual restaurants. (see Opportunities, Attachment
Chipotle’s founder, co-CEO, and Chairman Steve Ells opened the restaurant Chipotle with a belief that “food served fast did not have to be low quality and that delicious food did not have to be expensive” (Thompson p.300). Since the opening of Chipotle Mexican Grill, the founder Steve Ells, has not looked back and has expanded Chipotle from a 1-unit operation in Denver into 1,458-unit operation in 43 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, the UK and France serving more than 900,000 customers a day. It comes as no surprise that a Wall Street analyst termed Chipotle Mexican Grill as “the perfect stock”, while another analyst stated that “Chipotle could well prove to be the next McDonald’s” (Thompson p.300). Chipotle has become one of the
The original material of food cost of Chipotle operating costs is larger than other fast food restaurants, although this is a measure they have to implement to ensure freshness and health of food they sold, this is the reason for their high food prices. Even if the majority of customers are willing to pay for the higher cost of health food, Chipotle still should find out some effective ways to reduce the cost of their food in the future. Here are some suggestions: firstly,negotiate with the original suppliers to establish a long-term and stronger cooperative relationship to achieve a purpose of a certain reduction in the purchase price. Secondly, take advantage of suppliers’ promotional discounts. Attempt to make communications and collaborations
Expanding into new markets such as Southeast Asian Kitchen gives Chipotle a way to increase market share of fast-casual dining outside of the original “Mexican” food market. More specifically, Chipotle seems to be a strength leader of its competition by at least 1.0 weighted score. Key success factors include quick/efficient production, geographic coverage, customer service, brand awareness/reputation, and cost containment. One reason for the leadership advantage is Chipotle’s quick and efficient production while maintaining high quality This is something that competitors have a hard time imitating. Its small lack in geographic coverage and market scope are still
Restaurants come in many shapes and sizes. Some are large or worldwide and some are local. Each eating establishment has there own since of environment, people and food. The way all of these dots connect together effects what customers come and how they act within the space physically and mentally. Chipotle is a large Mexican food chain and Casa Nueva is a local Mexican restaurant.
In 1993, Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) was founded by Steve Ells and was initially introduced to the restaurant market in Denver, Colorado. Chipotle had a mission to significantly impact and alter the restaurant industry, specifically the fast-casual segment. Its growth occurred quite swiftly and its success caught the attention of the global corporation McDonald’s, who ended up investing more than $350 million into CMG, Inc. and profiting $1.5 billion in return. According to Exhibit 5, “Revenue and Operating Market”, from the year 2004 to 2013, profitability continuously grew from nearly $500 million to more than $3,000 million USD. In 2013 alone, revenue increased by 17.7%.
In 2013, Chipotle created a well made animation called The Scarecrow, For years many people speculate that all fast food restaurant are serving fake food, chemically produce products, and unhealthy food overall. Many fast food restaurant were left with that stereotype. Until, Chipotle demonstrating how their brand is a one of kind fastfood industry. The video got over 15 million views worldwide. The video became extremely popular, hit the hearts of their many viewers.
The focal point of Chipotle was to merge high quality organic natural ingredients, delivered in a quick manner to busy customers. Thus embodying the swiftness of the fast food experience. To ensure the ability to be competitive, Steve Ells developed a cost effective strategy which would enable Chipotle to gain a distinct advantage over well-established market leaders, such as Pret A Manger, Le Pain Quotidien and Taco Bell. Thereby joining the new market in the fast food industry. Steve Ells, Founder, Chairman and Co-CEO of Chipotle stated the following as it relates to the release of the company’s 2013 financial results: “Over the past 20 years, we have created a very unique and restaurant company.
However, because of its poor financial performance in 2016, at the price of $377.32, Chipotle was trading at a price to earnings (P/E) ratio close to 490 times its 2016 earnings. Although fast-casual restaurant chains usually trade at higher P/E multiples than the conventional fast food chains like McDonald’s, Chipotle’s P/E ratio of 490 is still outrageously high, leading some investors to question if Chipotle is highly overvalued. In order to access the fair value of Chipotle, it seems necessary to examine the strategic outlook of the fast-casual restaurant industry as well as the historical performances of Chipotle relative to its peer
When it comes to fast food restaurants, most people tend to think of McDonald, Taco Bell, and KFC. Chipotle, however does not seem to have its name associate with the fast-food industry sector. Chipotle is a very successful Mexican-American chain restaurant that operates in more than 2000 locations world-wide. Its tremendous success results in its exponential growth and rising profit margin despite the scare of E. coli, Salmonella, and Norovirus in a few of its stores.
Over the years, Chipotle has kept a lot of things constant. Why? Because they want their customers to come back with the same expectations and satisfaction. To evolve is the only way for a company to grow. Apparently that is all it takes to have fast casual restaurant.
I - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY When Chipotle opened its first branch couple years ago, its ideology was simple: shows the public that food served fast didn't have to be a called or seen as "fast-food". To make it looks and sounds different, its founder used high-quality raw ingredients, classic cooking methods, an impeccable restaurant interior design, and friendly employees to take care of customers. At the time Chipotle, was the only restaurant trying to change the way people see fast food. Twenty years after the first one was opened, chipotle owners and founders now own 1,500 restaurants.
Chipotle also competes with supermarkets, since they give consumers the option to purchase ingredients to cook at home or consumers are able to purchase precooked, frozen meals. Taco Bell, Qdoba and Supermarkets can also be considered substitutes for Chipotles food offerings because they all serve similar food choices in the market. However, Chipotles food quality and ethical buying sets them apart in the market. Due to the intense competition in the market, new entrants are a threat
Chipotle is in the fast casual industry where competition is extremely intense since there are so many different dining options. An industry like fast casual restaurants has a very high growth rate therefore there is not just one company that has the market cornered. What sets the restaurants apart is not cost but product differentiation; they position themselves in the market with their slogan of Food with Integrity. Since restaurants in the fast casual industry are priced fairly in the same range Chipotle uses different product features to set themselves apart from the others (parature.com). The first value driver in Chipotle’s differentiation strategy is the product quality; they utilize local farmers who are conscience of the environment.
The following paper will examine the organizational structure of the Chipotle organization, diagnose problems,
Introduction The restaurant industry in the United States had annual sales of $ 631.8 billion and employs 12.9 million people in 2012. Even in times of recession there is little evidence that this industry has seen a decline especially in its fast food and quick service segment. But with a depressed economy with no immediate upward trend in the near future, majority of the customers indicated that they would either curtail their spending on eating or best maintain its current level which is certainly going to affect the future of many restaurants in the industry. Chipotle is part of the fast casual segment of the U.S industry with over 1,600 restaurants.