Chipotle Qdoba Mexican Grill

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Introduction Steve Ells is the founder of Chipotle. Ells attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, he then began his culinary education at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Ells dream was to one day open his own restaurant but he wanted something out of the norm something that would be deemed fantastic. Ells wanted fast food but he also wanted it to be quality fast food. Ells wanted to re-write the rules of fast food and raise the expectations of those who enjoy it. In the year 1993 he was able to launch the first ever Chipotle with the help of a loan of $85,000 from his father (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2013). Fresh and Gourmet Chipotle uses high quality raw ingredients and are committed to using organic ingredients.…show more content…
Its current competitors are Qdoba Mexican Grill, Panera Bread and Pei Wei. These competitors have also embraced the concept of fast casual dining. Qdoba Mexican Grill was started in 1995 and is a subsidiary of Jack in The Box (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2013). The main components of their menu is guacamole, beans, shredded beef, pork, chicken and steak. The food is always prepared out in the open on a grill where the consumers can see. Qdoba also has a menu for the health conscious consumer. They offer a lettuce wrap amongst other healthy options. Qdoba operates 188 company owned restaurants and 337 franchised locations within the U.S. (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2013). Panera Bread was originally founded in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co. They are known for their signature fresh baked artesian bread and Café style. Panera Bread is currently Chipotle’s biggest and strongest competitor. Amongst the menu a consumer will find soups, salads, pastas, sandwiches and baked delicacies just to name a few. Panera operates 1,453 bakery-style restaurants in 40 states and is also in Canada (Barron, 2012). Like Chipotle, Panera Bread takes great care and consideration with the food that is produced for its consumers. They transport fresh tuna, cream cheese and other products from distribution centers up to 500 miles to its restaurants (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson,…show more content…
Currently Chipotle has just one corporate office which is located in Denver. Having 337 franchises as well as 188 company owned restaurants Chipotle should consider having more than one corporate office. In order to properly deal with management as well as handle communication issues. It would also serve Chipotle better to have more corporate offices even if only regional offices. This would help to gain a better grasp and understanding of the surrounding area, culture and activity of the local consumers. Another challenge for Chipotle is its extensive geographic footprint (Barron, 2012). Chipotle plans to expand and open additional restaurants and the consequences of this can result in oversight of existing construction projects, which could then result in increased cost for

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