Chipotle Believes Recent E.coli Outbreak is Finished

Chipotle has been hit with a string of quality issues with its food. The brand’s first E.coli outbreak started in the Pacific Northwest in October and slowly made its way to the Midwest. Norovirus outbreaks occurred in California and Boston, and a case of salmonella was traced to restaurants in Minnesota at the beginning of 2015. Suffice to say, Chipotle has been doing some damage control to ensure their product’s quality is top-notch.

Chipotle founder, chairman and CEO Steve Ellis recently spoke at the annual ICR Conference and said the brand is taking steps to prevent a situation like this from occurring again.

“We face these difficult times now and need to reassure our customers that this can’t happen again,” he said. “In order to do this, we have to take extraordinary measures. But we are used to taking extraordinary measures. I have confidence we are going to recover from this and that we’ll win our customers back and emerge a much stronger company.”

He went on to add the brand is working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and is hopeful the agency will give them the all clear.

The brand is currently dealing with a number of lawsuits regarding foodborne illness and was recently served with a subpoena by federal investigators in order to determine the cause of the California norovirus outbreak. Fourth quarter same-store sales dropped 14.6 percent.

Trying to buy back the goodwill of the public, the brand has increased the amount of free food it gives out to customers. CFO Jack Hartung said they have always had free giveaway promotions, but he said they have sent out detailed emails to stores outlining exactly how much they are allowed to give.

But there is hope on the horizon as the brand is enacting a companywide meeting on Feb. 8 to discuss with employees what is exactly going on, how they are going to fix the situation and detailing new protocols for suppliers. A new marketing campaign will also be released highlighting the food at the restaurant, hoping to remind the Chipotle faithful of their previous devotion to the brand.

Nick Powills, CFE, founded No Limit Agency in 2008 and serves as Chief Brand Strategist for the Chicago-based firm. No Limit is a full-service communications agency that establishes and elevates brands by bridging Public Relations, Social Media, Marketing, Advertising, Digital, and a lot of creativity, to best strategize well-rounded and successful campaigns for 50+ global franchise brands. By presenting visionary ideas and building real relationships, No Limit is able to create effective media branding strategies to help companies grow. Nick currently leads a staff of writers, media strategists, designers, social media experts and digital producers in an office think-tank where brands are humanized for strong, compelling media stories. Prior to starting No Limit at the age of 27, Nick spent four years working at a franchise PR agency where he mastered the art of building rapport with media outlets and creating newsworthy pitches for earned media placements. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Drake University in Iowa.

Chipotle Believes Recent E.coli Outbreak is Finished

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