Along with the freebies, executives announced that all of the chains’ 2,000 stores would shut down for several hours on February 8 for a food safety meeting.
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The delayed openings next month are so employees can take part in a team meeting to discuss changes the company is making to tighten its food-safety measures. As of September, Chipotle has 1,906 restaurants worldwide, 1,895 of which are in the U.S.
Investors loved the stock, at the height of its popularity, Chipotle’s stock was at a high of about $750. However, until the company can figure out a way to not have its food contaminated with disease, Chipotle will not win back the many customers it has lost.
In December, Chipotle suffered from two more outbreaks.
In addition to the ongoing, well-publicized, nine-state E. coli o26 outbreak that sickened 53 people in October and early November, another cluster of five illnesses in three states caused by a different strain of E. coli O26 occurred in late November. One of the norovirus outbreaks is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, in conjunction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
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.
“We know that Chipotle is as safe as it’s ever been before”, Ells said on January 13 at a conference in Orlando.
“In the end, it may not be possible for anyone to completely eliminate all risk with regard to food (or from any environment where people congregate), but we are confident that we can achieve near zero risk”, Ells said.
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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.
