Net of Chipotle restaurants

Chipotle restaurants history

How the restaurant CHIPOTLE was created

Do you like something hotter? Then CHIPOTLE restaurants are waiting for you! The world-famous Mexican food chain was founded by the American Steve Ells in 1993. The founder was a professional chef who graduated from the culinary Institute of America, and subsequently trained in one of the prestigious American restaurants. The first investor in the business was the father of Steve Ells, who lent his son 85 000 dollars. The investment plan of the son and father was successful, which allowed to open a second restaurant Chipotle in 1995. Thus began the triumphant March of this unique network in the United States. To date, the restaurant chain has spread to the UK, Germany, Canada, France.

The name of the company gave the Mexican seasoning Chipotle. It's smoked red jalapeno chillies. The hallmark of the company are Mexican national cuisine, mainly burritos and tacos. All products from which food is prepared, are carefully monitored internally by the restaurant chain. This approach allows the company to hold a leading position in the field of Mexican cuisine. British cuisine has made a great purchase in the face of this unique chain of restaurants. Also in the restaurants of this chain a large selection of Mexican chips, drinks and salads. There is also a children's menu.

Using the example of the world fast casual market - the American chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, one can observe how the restaurant market has changed over the past decades.

Today, Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of the stable engines of the American economy, a company with about 1980 locations (as of the end of 2016) in North America and Europe (Germany, Great Britain and France), providing jobs for 59,330 employees. The network's market capitalization is estimated at $11.78 billion.

500 points in 11 years

American Steve Ells, future founder and owner of Chipotle Mexican Grill, started his career in the restaurant business as a simple chef at Stars Restaurant. Burritos and tacos were in constant demand among the visitors of this establishment. Ells decided that a diner serving these Mexican Democratic hits would be a good start to a career on his own. In 1993, with the moral and material support of his father, he opened the first Chipotle Mexican Grill in Denver, Colorado.

The restaurant's success has surpassed the most optimistic forecasts. Already in 1995, father and son opened a second restaurant. Family support played a large role in development - for the opening of new outlets, of course, they took loans from banks, but Steve Ells received a very serious part of the investment from his father, other family members and friends. All of them became partners-investors.

The new player's agility attracted the attention of the giants. In 1996, McDonald's became the main investor in the Chipotle Mexican Grill. But in 2006, McDonald's stopped investing, citing a change in strategy and the need to focus on developing its own brand and network. Over 8 years of cooperation, the company invested $360 million in Chipotle, and the total profit of McDonald's in an alliance with Chipotle amounted to $1.5 billion. At the time of parting, there were already 500 outlets in the Mexican restaurant chain.

Listing played an important role in the development of Chipotle Mexican Grill. In the first days of the placement, the shares rose by 100%. Chipotle Mexican Grill's IPO has performed the best performing in the US stock market in 6 years.

Franchising - no!

From under the McDonald's wing, Chipotle Mexican Grill bought out a small fraction of its franchised restaurants. Since then, it has not fundamentally worked as a franchisee. All points of the network are under corporate control. According to the company's management, in franchised restaurants there is no way to control the cost and quality at the proper level. Well, from a financial point of view, a company with $1.5 billion in operating revenue from corporate restaurants, franchising development is simply of little interest. It is interesting that such a categorical choice of the development scheme has become another brand feature.

Fall

The years 2015–2016 have fallen on hard times for the leader of the Mexican fast casual segment. The company found itself at the center of a string of guest poisoning scandals. Sales began to plummet and the stock lost value. While Chipotle sorted out the lawsuits, new fast casual chains rushed to feed disaffected guests. In 2016, Chipotle Mexican Grill barely made it to the top four American restaurant brands, according to the Harris Poll EquiTrend ranking, where it flaunted at the top of the list for the previous three years, giving way to Taco Bell, Qdoba Mexican Grill and Baja Fresh Mexican Grill. Moe's Southwest Grill, which has 600 restaurants, is the fast casual Mexican restaurant brand of the year.

Fast casual past and future

In addition to Chipotle Mexican Grill, the world leaders in the fast casual segment are such chains as Boston Market, Bruegger's, Newk's Eatery, Noodle's & Co, Panera Bread, Vapiano and many others.