February 8 won’t be national burrito day.
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‘We want to thank our teams for all of their hard work, to discuss some of the changes we are making to enhance food safety, to talk about the restaurants role in all of that and to answer questions from employees’.
Due to the E. coli outbreak that has been plaguing the company since October, Chipotle will shutter all its stores for a few hours on February 8.
The stores will open at 3 p.m., later than the usual start time of about 10 a.m. or 11 a.m., skipping the lunch hour rush on a Monday. It sickened five people in the Seattle area with E. coli O157:H7 during July.
Following the conference, on Thursday, many analysts reiterate and upgraded stock rating, which reflects the analysts are hopeful that the corporation will successfully remove the risk of food-borne illness.
The trouble began in August when 64 customers in Minnesota were infected with Salmonella and about 100 people were struck by norovirus in southern California.
Chipotle founder and co-CEO Steve Ells said in his statement: “We’re going to let all of our folks know about how this happened, and, in detail, all the steps that we’re taking to ensure that it won’t happen again”. At least one of the events has even prompted a federal investigation. This meeting will include all of Chipotle’s staff at its more than 1,900 locations, said Danielle Moore, public relations and communications manager for Chipotle, per NBC News.
A month later, 141 Boston College students were reported to have contracted norovirus after eating at a Chipotle in Brighton, Mass. The chain specifically mentioned this incident in an SEC filing last week, saying that it “worsened the adverse financial and operating impacts” from the E. coli outbreaks.
“We did a really comprehensive review of food safety practices from farm to restaurants”, he added.
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The outbreaks caused significant financial damage to the company as well, with a 30 percent drop in same-store sales in December, according to a company memo.
