Chipotle Believes Recent E.coli Outbreak is Finished

CEO Steve Ellis said they will be taking extreme steps to repair the damage caused by the food quality issues.

SPONSOREDUpdated 12:12PM • 01/14/16

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.