Chipotle Mexican Grill is an American chain of fast food restaurants in the United States. The company rose to prominence right from its inception in 1993. The company’s founder Steve Elle wanted to serve customer inexpensive and yet delicious food at the pace of a fast-food restaurant. The ability of Chipotle to serve, “slow food, fast” is what set it apart from its competitors and made it widely popular. In 2012, Chipotle owned 1,458 restaurants all over the country and was serving 900,000 customers per day in 43 states. 1. SWOT Analysis a. Internal Analysis i. Strengths Chipotle’s core competency is its ability to serve its customers quickly. Chipotle creates orders quickly through its infamous service line, this allows the company to serve 200-300 customers per hour. Another strength of Chipotle is that it uses organically grown ingredients in all of its restaurants. It uses meat and dairy products obtained from suppliers who practice humane farming and are conscious of animal ethics. Moreover, Chipotle has started offering vegetarian alternatives which makes it popular among vegetarians. Chipotle’s network of reliable and approved suppliers with the help of regional distribution centers is also a source of strength as it increases quality as well as operational efficiency. While Chipotle has a low marketing budget, it stresses on consistent brand image and message in all of its restaurants which results in a unified brand image. Finally, a strength for Chipotle is
The actions taken by Chipotle after the E.coli outbreak can be seen as both exacerbating the problem and finding ways to resolve the problem. However, as the crisis began, leadership coming from CEO Steve Ells and Co-CEO Monty Moran painted a picture of denial. One of the first decisions made in reaction the crisis was to purchase full-paid advertisements. This marketing tactic was done to mask the severity of the e-coli outbreak, sooth investors, and retain loyal customers. In addition to television advertisements, Chipotle decided to advertise using direct mail (Wahba, 2016). This practice does not correlate with traditional chipotle advertising; their last paid advertisement was in 2012. Chipotle has always operated in a fashion that let
As demonstrated in Exhibit 1 on page 143, the company’s total revenue increased from $1.085.782 million dollars to $3.214.591 million dollars in less than seven years. Beginning at the end of 2007 through the end of 2013, Chipotle’s Mexican Grill total revenues increased at a CAGR of 19.83%. The new provided catering program, the six elements of their strategy adapted to other cuisines (ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen) and the growing number of new restaurants are decisive aspects in increasing revenue yearly.
All organizations have their own unique traits that differs them from others. There are a lot of reasons that helped chipotle grow and expand in the way they did. One of the main reasons is that their main focus is on their employees. They believe that creating a culture that focus on helping your people to grow and develop is the base for success. By having employees who love what they do; they will help in creating a brand that customers will love and they will be committed to accomplish the company goals.
re strong competitors and Yum! Foods leads the industry it is my recommendation that any investments be made in Chipotle.
The company had run a national TV commercial which named “Back to the Start” during the Grammy Awards. Chipotle also had published their food, restaurant concept and business through favorable articles and television programs. Moreover, Chipotle used video and music programs as well as event strategy to attract the consumers’ attention to their restaurants. The company also initiated promotional activities via newly opened restaurants to attract more consumers. Chipotle introduced a reward program, the “Farm Team” to encourage more customers to join a program that educated them something related to Chipotle Mexican Grill business concept. In addition, the word-of-mouth publicity from customers enable Chipotle to reduce the cost of advertising but at the same time increasing the brand reputation of the restaurants in the
Chipotle’s kitchen and restaurant design intentionally places employees up front to reinforce a focus on service, through interaction with customers and individual attention by creating one burrito at a time (Chipotle, 2011, p. 5). While Chipotle combines basic ingredients to magnify the flavor they also stick to the basics when staffing their restaurants. Chipotle only has two shifts and cross trains their
The Chipotle Mexican Grille opened its first store in 1993 beginning a new category in the restaurant industry known as “fast casual” (About Us, 2014). This new category featured the “highest quality raw ingredients, classic cooking methods, and distinctive interior design-features that are more frequently found in the world of fine dining.” However, aside from the normally long wait in lines, an order could be taken and served in only a couple minutes. Currently Chipotle operates more than 1,500 restaurants internationally. The following pages will present a balanced approach to the effectiveness of Chipotle’s strategy analyzing financial performance, customer satisfaction, employee/learning and growth, and internal process.
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
Considering the scrutiny that they have faced in recent years for food contamination; that may be hard to believe. I asked through email for information about some of their ingredients, they were willing to give me answers except for their meat. “The food chain began sourcing grass-fed beef from Australia” (Watrous). This may explain why Chipotle didn't answer my question and I had to go searching for the answer myself. Although, the beef they were outsource followed their guidelines, it wasn’t beef from the U.S and it was later found this was the likely cause of e coli outbreak. “For many months now, we have struggled to get all of the beef we need from cattle raised without the use of antibiotics or added hormones” (Watrous). Chipotle does try its hardest to serve food with integrity; however that is very dependent on the supply and demand. So, when demand is too high Chipotle turns to places like Australia or non-safe farming farms in order to feed the consumer. As Patel has stated in his book, “The consumer is part of the problem”. When Chipotle turns to farmers not in their business model; it contributes to the problem that is large scale farming. This Farming poisons the earth through pesticides that find its way into groundwater and eventually the Ocean. Agricultural runoff has proven to negatively impact marine ecosystems. Getting meat from Australia also puts unnecessary CO2 emissions into the
2. What does a SWOT analysis reveal about the attractiveness of Chipotle Mexican Grill’s situation and future prospects?
The Fast food industry is extremely competitive. Although Chipotle is a step up from most fast food restaurants, it still must
The purpose of this new product expansion is to increase sales primarily. Increasing sales is very important for Chipotle and these new products can help raise revenues significantly. The project deliverables include the introduction of the project, and the implementation of the project both in the United States and then other
Chipotle is the leader in the fast casual market, with over 1,900 locations, $3.21 billion in annual revenue, and the ability to serve up to 300 customers an hour. It has innovated the restaurant market by providing reasonably priced scratch-made meals, containing local ingredients, all within the confines of a pleasing aesthetic environment (Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., 2014; Kaplan, 2011). To reach its success, the firm utilized architectural innovation by stealing components of various types of restaurants already in existence. The company appropriated its rapid meal preparation methods from fast food chains such Subway and Quiznos, adopted its provision of quality food from more upscale casual Mexican restaurants, and implemented a locally based supply chain similar to that seen at many local farm-to-table establishments. This convergence of different properties came together right as the millennial generation was coming of age and demand higher quality, natural, and locally sourced ingredients in meals that could receive quickly. The company has also attempted to utilize an incremental innovation approach by removing all CMO ingredients and testing new foods such as breakfast items, soup, and chorizo sausage (The Associated Press, 2015; Peterson,
One of the reasons that Chipotle has been so successful is because of its management style. The company has set up an adaptive culture that allows employees, managers, and customers to thrive. Managers appreciate people and the new
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