Founded in 1993 by Steve Ells and only second to McDonalds, Chipotle Mexican Grill serves a variety of food like quesadillas, burritos, and rice bowls. With 3,200 restaurants worldwide, the most popular item on Chipotle remains the burrito. Customers are able to customize it with many toppings, making it one of the most flexible options on the menu, as well as the one that can satisfy the most people.
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Even though I think Chipotle is the best fast food restaurant, it is still important to list the pros and cons of the company.
Pros:
It serves quality food: With food made out quality ingredients, the advanced cooking techniques used only increase the flavor and taste of the dishes. Besides this, the food is generously sized and can fill up someone for less than 10 dollars.
Steady increase in restaurant count: Improving their numbers by 14%, Chipotle has steadily increased the count of their restaurants and have much potential for growth, with over 4.8 million in sales in a year.
Efficient assembly - line: Taking 18 to 22 seconds to serve a customer, Chipotle has a faster time than McDonalds drive through, almost 3.5 minutes!
Stock Prices: In the last few years, Chipotle's stocks have risen a whopping 510.6%, while McDonald or Panera Bread stocks have only risen 117.2% and 145.1% respectively.
Cons:
Hard to find good ingredients: Even though a McDonalds sized chain would be beneficial to investors, it would become increasingly difficult for Chipotle to find good ingredients, even more so when the ever looming presence of inflation is a key factor. In addition, they would need to choose between quality or growth potential.
Not proven overseas: Chipotle has a large presence in California, with over 69% of their restaurants located here. They don't have many restaurants overseas, indicating that Chipotle has not yet proven themselves to others, and may be unable to replicate their success in California.
Too much sodium: The CDC recommends that one should not have more than 2,300 milligrams of salt, or sodium each day, and while some may think that Chipotle is healthy, a flour tortilla of 14 inches has 600 milligrams of sodium in itself, and the meat adds on, ranging from 310-560 milligrams of sodium.
While Chipotle has a few cons, the pros heavily outweigh them. Though, as a fast food restaurant, it faces some competition from McDonalds, as well as Burger King.
Sources: USA Today, badgerherald.com, seekingalpha.com, www.LinkedIn.com
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