Signage hangs from a closed Chipotle restaurant in Portland, Ore., Monday, Nov. 2, 2015.
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The once hugely popular burrito chain revealed on Wednesday that the company was also served with a grand jury subpoena last month to investigate the nasty norovirus outbreak that started at a Simi Valley, California, restaurant in August.
In an 8K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which demands business information of interest to stockholders or the SEC, the Denver-based company said it would comply with a request to hand over documents pertinent to its Simi Valley, Calif., location, site of a norovirus outbreak in August 2015. That’s not the case anymore after multiple outbreaks of E.coli and norovirus have sickened customers and brought the chain the type of press that drives sales to other restaurants. Same-store sales tanked 14.6 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Wednesday’s regulatory filing-worse than the estimated 11 percent investors were predicting, and the first quarterly drop Chipotle’s reported since it went public in 2006.
In December, a norovirus outbreak at a Boston Chipotle restaurant sickened more than 130.
Chipotle said same-store sales were trending down 16 percent at the onset of December but fell 34 percent after the Brighton incident and the subsequent national media attention it garnered.
The situation continues to escalate as Chipotle was served with a federal subpoena last month surrounding a criminal investigation tied to the norovirus outbreak.
Ventura County health official Doug Beach said his office was interviewed by the FDA and U.S. Attorney’s office in the fall.
He said Chipotle had been cooperative with the county’s investigation, which uncovered issues such as unclean equipment and employees without the necessary food handling permits.
The company declined to comment beyond the filing.
The cause of the E. coli outbreak has not yet been identified…
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To rehabilitate its image, Chipotle has taken out full-page ads apologizing to customers in dozens of newspapers around the country. Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold said in a company email that employees will not discuss pending litigation, but Chipotle plans to cooperate fully with the investigation. It also vowed changes to step up food safety at its restaurants, in part by tweaking its cooking methods and increasing testing of meat and produce, said the report.
