Orange County’s most valuable publicly traded company, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG), remains one of the fastest-growing public firms in the region by several metrics.
When the Newport Beach-based restaurant chain went public in 2006, it counted 500 restaurants with a goal of opening 3,000 locations.
Chipotle reached that goal last year—it now has over 3,200 stores in its portfolio—and now aims to open 7,000 restaurants.
In 2021, Chipotle hit record digital sales of $2 billion, helping build its loyalty rewards program to 35 million members as of July.
Earlier this year, Chipotle became Orange County’s most valuable public company, hitting an all-time high $56 billion market cap in April, surpassing the valuation of Irvine-based heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW).
Valued at $51 billion as of Oct. 19, Chipotle now sits around $8 billion above Edwards among OC public companies.
Chipotle reported revenue of $9.3 billion for the 12 months ended June, showing growth of 36% from two years ago. The chain ranks No. 10 among the county’s fastest-growing public companies in the large category, according to this week’s Business Journal list (see list, page 30).
The past several quarters have seen revenue growth of 10% or more in each three-month period.
“Our customization, convenience and speed are differentiators, and our value is simply tremendous,” CEO Brian Niccol told analysts in July. “This has resulted in an industry-leading brand with industry-leading economics, and we still have a long runway for growth.”
Thousands More
The chain opened its first restaurant 30 years ago in Denver, its headquarters prior to Niccol moving the chain to OC in 2018.
In addition to expanding domestically, Chipotle’s looked to boost its presence overseas.
At the end of June, Chipotle’s portfolio included 3,205 U.S. locations and 57 international spots, with outposts in Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Its largest international market is Canada, with 34 locations and 10 more in the works.
This year, Chipotle signed its first-ever franchise deal with the Alshaya Group in the Middle East to open its first set of restaurants in Kuwait and Dubai in 2024.
Chipotle officials said they plan to reorganize operations and add resources in the U.K. and Europe before accelerating unit growth. The company brought one of its “top U.S. operators to drive productivity and better align our operations with the U.S.,” Niccol told analysts.
“Once we get performance consistent in Europe, like we did in Canada, we’ll start building much more aggressively,” he added.
Chipotle opened three new locations in the U.K. this summer.
“We’re in no rush to just start building restaurants for the sake of building restaurants,” Niccol said.
“We want to have economics that makes sense and then we want to have a great brand that we can execute against time and time again. That has served us well in the United States. It’s serving us well in Canada. I believe it’ll serve us well in Europe.”
Collaborative Robots
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.’s investments toward its in-store operations have been key to driving strong financial results, according to Chief Customer and Technology Officer Curt Garner.
A couple of focus areas have been “throughput on the front line and timeliness and accuracy on the digital makeline,” Garner told the Business Journal.
This includes better training for employees, and new kitchen equipment such as dual-sided grills or three pan rice cookers for faster cooking.
As of this year, Chipotle has three automated food prep systems in testing at the chain’s 20,000-square-foot Cultivate Center in Irvine, where Chipotle’s test kitchen is located.
In early 2022, Chipotle revealed an autonomous kitchen assistant called “Chippy” developed in partnership with Miso Robotics and designed to cook and season the restaurant’s tortilla chips using the existing employee technique and company recipe.
Chippy is currently being tested in a restaurant in Fountain Valley.
Through its $50 million venture fund, Chipotle invested in two different automation firms, Hyphen and Vebu, who have added two more projects to its robotics lineup.
El Segundo-based Vebu helped create an avocado processing robot called “Autocado” to cut, core and peel the fruit for the chain’s guacamole.
Hyphen developed an automated digital makeline that assembles bowls and salads from digital orders and will be the centerpiece of the digital kitchen, according to Garner.
Chipotle’s CEO Brian Niccol hopes to put the automated prep line into restaurants in the next 12 to 18 months.
“We are looking to make investments that will increase guest access to Chipotle as well as elevate the human experience for our teams,” Garner said.
