Chipotle has not yet said how sales have been affected by the bad publicity from the E. coli outbreak, but said it would provide a financial update before its presentation at the Bernstein Consumer Summit on Tuesday.
Advertisement
For the past few months, Chipotle has been under the radar, with federal authorities investigating a pathogenic E. coli strain, which has now affected 52 people across nine states, with 47 of these individuals saying they ate at Chipotle right before they fell sick. These are Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Minnesota, Maryland, Illinois and California.
In a statement issued Friday, Chipotle said they have “taken aggressive actions to implement industry-leading food safety and food handling practices in all of its restaurants and throughout its supply chain”. The outbreak caused Chipotle to temporarily close over 40 restaurants in Seattle and Portland.
Some recent events may cause people to think twice before eating at a Chipotle restaurant.
At the end of October, cases had been reported in OR and Washington. No deaths or cases of HUS have been reported. The company reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $4.62 by $0.03. (NYSE:CMG)’s share price traded down 3.1% during trading on Friday after Deutsche Bank lowered their price target on the stock from $710.00 to $525.00, AnalystRatings.NET reports. Illnesses started from October 19 through November 13.
Until now, after all the effort exerted by different agencies, it has not yet been confirmed as to what ingredient is the source of this outbreak. As a result, Chipotle temporarily closed 43 of its restaurants in Washington and Oregon. Investigators suspect a fresh produce item that was shipped from one location to multiple restaurants.
Symptoms, which include diarrhea and abdominal pain, usually begin two to eight days after a person has been exposed to the bacteria and resolve within a week.
“In testing for pathogens, in many ways you’re looking for needles in haystacks”. The company noted that its local produce program accounts for a “relatively small percentage” of the produce it uses. It said that no ingredients that are likely to have been linked with the outbreak remain in its restaurants.
The New York Times reported about how the stocks of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.
Advertisement
Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand.
