And the chain was forced to close a location in Boston earlier this month after 140 people there were sickened in a norovirus outbreak.
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Argus downgraded shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.
Ells said the company’s approach to food safety is similar to its focus on food quality and none of the new procedures are impossible or very hard to follow.
Last week, the company’s founder and co-chief executive, Steve Ells, assured investors at a conference in NY that the Mexican chain restaurant will be altering operations along its supply chain to improve food safety procedures.
Since its inception in 2008, Chipotle has prided itself on using food and ingredients sourced locally, something it is now taking a step back from, since fresh produce is what many believe is to blame for the food borne illness outbreaks throughout the country. “Because we have enhanced standards for food safety and testing, we expect that some of our local suppliers might have more trouble meeting those standards (particularly as it relates to testing), but we are also exploring ways that we might be able to help them meet those new standards”.
“This is an industrial strength program”, IEH President and CEO Monsour Samadpour said to the source.
Keith Schneider, a food safety microbiologist at the University of Florida who specializes in tomatoes, said there is better opportunity for control in a centralized kitchen. The E. coli outbreak also led to the closure of 43 Chipotle restaurants in Washington and Oregon. Telsey Advisory Group reduced their price objective on Chipotle Mexican Grill from $625.00 to $575.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 7th. The city ordered the restaurant closed on December 7.
Before rescinding its outlook Friday, the company had expected sales for 2016 to rise in the low-single digit percentages.
CNBC reported that, at least 52 people were sickened after a multi-state E.coli outbreak was discovered to be linked to Chipotle. (NYSE:CMG) by 9.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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“I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize on behalf of all of us at Chipotle, and to thank our loyal customers who have stood by us through this hard time”, Ells said in the advertisement, addressing specifically the recent norovirus outbreak in Boston.
