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International Strategy Of Chipotle

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Chipotle Mexican Grill is an American restaurant chain that currently has more than 1700 locations, with most of its locations in the U.S. and several in Canada and Europe. Chipotle has been gradually expanding its international presence since it opened its first location outside the U.S., in Toronto in 2008 (International Strategy, 2015). The restaurant now has 17 locations outside of the U.S. including locations in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. However, like all other international corporations, Chipotle strives to grow its business even further and extend global awareness of its brand. The next step in Chipotle’s global strategic plan would be to venture into new waters and enter Asia. Hence, Chipotle is now analyzing the decision of expanding operations into China.
Chipotle is a fast casual dining establishment that serves Mexican cuisine, specializing in burritos and tacos. Like other fast casual restaurants, it does not offer full table service, but promises a higher quality of food with fewer frozen or processed ingredients than fast food restaurants. In fact, Chipotle is widely known for its mission to only use organic ingredients and …show more content…

Thus, Chipotle must find a way to differentiate itself from other western restaurant chains, while integrating itself into the Chinese culture. It can use its capital and reputation for using local and sustainable ingredients to build a strong brand—a core competency that will give it a competitive advantage in the Chinese market. In a large, international city like Shanghai, local street food is cheap, but people will still want to dine at higher-end western restaurants because of that entails a higher status (Maxfield,

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