Latest news with #ScottBoatwright
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Chipotle CEO praises an alarming hiring practice in the workplace
Chipotle (CMG) employees have been through a lot over the past year. Last year, Chipotle was accused of "skimping on ingredients" when serving burrito bowls to customers. In response to this accusation, it became a trend on TikTok to film Chipotle employees preparing burrito bowl orders. Customers believed this would lead them to receive larger portions of food, which frustrated workers. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Then-Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol later addressed the controversy, claiming that "there was never a directive to provide less" to customers; however, the company found that 10% of its restaurants were serving customers inconsistent food portions. Related: Chipotle faces lawsuit for serving 'inconsistent' portion sizes Chipotle later began increasing its reliance on technology to simplify operations. In September, it began testing a new robot in select stores "to build bowls and salads" for digital orders, improving "employee efficiency and digital order accuracy," according to a press release. It also began testing a new Autocado robot, which "cuts avocados, removes their skin, and separates their fruit through an automated process" in 26 seconds. Chipotle said that this will free up a lot of time for workers, giving them more time to focus on prepping orders and assisting customers. In addition to using robots in select stores, it even began using artificial intelligence to speed up its hiring process as it rapidly opens new restaurants. In October, Chipotle launched its AI hiring platform "Ava Cado" which aims to "provide a frictionless hiring experience by chatting with candidates, answering their questions about Chipotle, collecting basic information, scheduling interviews for hiring managers, and sending offers to candidates who are selected by managers," according to a press release. Related: Chipotle is mulling a controversial change to its menu In a recent interview with Fortune Magazine, Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright said that "Ava Cado" has reduced hiring times by 75% as the company plans to open a new Chipotle restaurant almost every 24 hours this year. "This not only helps us keep our restaurant staffed, but ensures we have the best talent that's available in the industry," said Boatwright. He emphasized that despite the company's increased reliance on technology, it doesn't plan on replacing its workers with it. "We don't look to replace the human experience; we look to remove waste and expand or enhance the team member experience," he said. The move from Chipotle comes during a time when many companies such as IBM, JPMorgan Chase, and even the IRS have also recently introduced artificial intelligence into its workplace to boost productivity. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna even said that while AI has replaced hundreds of HR workers at his company, it has also resulted in more hiring. More Labor: Amazon CEO gives hard-nosed message to employeesIRS has an alarming solution to a growing problem after layoffsJPMorgan Chase CFO issues stern warning to employees "While we have done a huge amount of work inside IBM on leveraging AI and automation on certain enterprise workflows, our total employment has actually gone up, because what it does is it gives you more investment to put into other areas," said Krishna. As more companies bet big on AI use in the workplace, U.S. workers are concerned about the domino effect this technology can have on their jobs. According to a recent survey from YouGov, more than one-third of U.S. workers are worried that AI will result in job loss or fewer work hours. Also, 56% of workers in the survey believe that AI will shrink the number of job opportunities, and 55% think that their work hours will be reduced due to the technology. Related: Papa Johns makes major menu change to win back customers The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
New York Post
10-06-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Chipotle is using AI to open new locations with astoundingly short time frame
Artificial intelligence is helping Chipotle rapidly grow its footprint, according to CEO Scott Boatwright. On Monday, Boatwright told Fortune at the outlet's COO summit that the company 'will open a new Chipotle restaurant this year almost every 24 hours' amid the chain growing at an 'exponential rate.' 'And if you think about the growth that's ahead of us and the need for highly capable, purpose-driven, value-oriented individuals is more critical today than it probably ever has been for our brand,' he said. The company's AI-powered Ava Cado hiring tool has helped shorten the time it takes Chipotle to hire new employees by roughly 75%, Boatwright said, according to the outlet. Ava Cado is part of the AI-infused hiring system that Chipotle unveiled in October 2024 through a partnership with Paradox. Ava Cado's capabilities include talking with candidates, answering their questions about Chipotle, collecting basic information, scheduling interviews for hiring managers and sending offers to candidates who are selected by managers, Chipotle has said. 3 A Chipotle restaurant is seen on March 5, 2014 in Miami, Florida. Getty Images Boatwright said faster hiring times 'not only helps us keep our restaurants staffed, but ensures we have the best talent that's available in the industry,' according to Fortune. During his summit appearance, he also said that when it came to AI, Chipotle looks to 'remove waste and expand or enhance the team member experience' rather than replacing humans, the outlet reported. At Chipotle, AI has also been deployed by the chain to entice customers back to restaurants through deals offered through its rewards program and to customize offers for customers, per Fortune. 3 Workers prepares meals at Chipotle Mexican Grill in West Bloomfield, Michigan on Thursday, January 26, 2006. BLOOMBERG NEWS There were nearly 3,800 Chipotle restaurants globally at the end of March, including nearly 3,700 across the United States, according to the company's first-quarter earnings report. The company aims to launch 315 to 345 new restaurants in 2025, Chipotle has said. During Chipotle's earnings call in April, Boatwright said 80% of those will include a Chipotlane drive thru pick-up lane. 3 Pedestrians walk past a Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. location in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. Bloomberg Chipotle generated nearly $2.9 billion in total revenue during the first-quarter, a 6.4% increase from the same three-month period last year. Its net income, meanwhile, widened to $386.6 million. Its second-quarter financial results are slated to be released in July.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chipotle's brand chief on turning up the heat where brand meets culture
This story was originally published on Marketing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Marketing Dive newsletter. The opening stretch of 2025 presented a steep challenge for restaurants as economic uncertainty dragged on performance at nearly every quick service, fast casual and casual dining chain. Even the usually consistent Chipotle saw same-store sales decrease in Q1 — its first such decline since the beginning of the pandemic led to restaurant closures. Like other restaurants, Chipotle is turning to marketing to weather choppy waters, with executives citing a need to make the brand more visible, relevant and loved. Apart from current macro headwinds, Chipotle in the last few years has also seen a step down in business during the summer — an additional challenge that it will look to overcome through marketing, CEO Scott Boatwright said on an April earnings call discussing the company's Q1 results. 'The marketing initiatives that are in flight are really just to maintain our position as it relates to relevance with the consumer throughout the summer months when our competitors continue to spend at high levels,' Boatwright said. First up this season is a 'Summer of Extras' effort that will give away more than $1 million in free burritos, followed by future campaigns centered around Chipotle's long-running commitment to real ingredients. The latter component feels especially timely considering conversations around food additives spurred by the 'Make America Healthy Again' movement. 'The good news is… none of that stuff is in any of the Chipotle foods. We don't really have to change anything,' said Chris Brandt, president, chief brand officer, at Chipotle. 'There's so much price-point comparison going on ... what we want to emphasize from Chipotle is a quality standpoint.' Chipotle has long made its approach to sourcing simple ingredients through sustainable agriculture a focal point of its marketing. That has allowed the brand to stay true to its tenets without the need for repositioning to meet the contemporary moment. 'We really want consumers to understand our difference … and get them maybe not only to buy the brand, but buy into the product proposition that Chipotle has,' Brandt said. 'When we get that, then we have a customer for life.' Brandt continues to look for opportunities to find an intersection between Chipotle and culture. Partnerships over the years have embraced a shared sense of value between Chipotle and brands including cosmetics marketer E.l.f. and workwear icon Carhartt. 'One of the good witness tests is when you hear the collab is happening, and you go, 'Wow, that makes a lot of sense,'' Brandt said. Chipotle's latest collaboration is with Cobra Golf and professional golfer Max Homa. At last month's PGA Memorial Tournament, Homa, a brand ambassador, used a club headcover that resembles the chain's silver burrito wrapper. The $90 item sold out in minutes — viral success that Chipotle has seen with previous releases, including a car napkin holder, a lemonade cup candle and a college freshman essentials kits. When different people in his life ask if these oddball collaborations are real and where they can get one, then Brandt knows Chipotle has a winner on its hands, the executive explained. Beyond teaming with other brands on wink-and-nod novelties, Chipotle has relied on official (and unofficial) relationships with sports leagues and players, whether through its multiyear partnership with the NHL or its Real Food for Real Athletes platform. The latter has opened up channels to players including NBA star Anthony Edwards and tennis pro Taylor Fritz. The growing prevalence of name, image and likeness rights deals with college athletes has given brands an opportunity to connect with the next generation of stars. But while many marketers focus on top players, Chipotle's NIL work with Ohio State University doled out free burritos weekly for every Division I athlete at the school, which shares a hometown with a company outpost. 'These athletes have now grown up with Chipotle. They've been having it since they were in grade school and it's been a part of their life, so we have legitimate, honest, organic stories to tell,' Brandt said. Chipotle has also been a first-mover in many digital spaces, including Roblox. The chain first ventured onto the gaming platform in 2021 and used a burrito roller experience to give out real-world rewards for completing virtual activities. While Chipotle had been dormant on the platform for several years, some of Roblox's 85 million daily active users were still patronizing its world space. That led Chipotle to reengage on Roblox, debuting a national TV ad and tapping into trading card mania on the platform earlier this year. 'Sometimes marketers get tired of stuff before consumers really do,' Brandt explained. 'We weren't necessarily tired of it, but we were waiting for the next big idea.' As it looks to bounce back from a tough Q1, Chipotle will 'meaningfully' ramp up marketing spend, increasing activity in digital and social channels and leveraging its rewards platform, Boatwright said on the April earnings call. The company expects to spend in the high 2% range of sales on marketing for the full-year. 'Now we're at a place where we can really pour the gas on some of these other channels that give us a really high return, and we can experiment and do some things differently,' Brandt said. Along with the Summer of Extras, Chipotle will continue to run its influencer-focused 'YourPotle' campaign that launched in April and introduce new spots in its long-running 'Behind the Foil' platform that provides behind-the-scenes looks at its kitchens, employees and farmers. Those campaigns continue telling the stories the brand has centered on since its founding in 1993 and could help it navigate choppy economic waters, even as its competitors turn to discounting. 'We think our food and our food values really hold up, so it's incumbent upon us, from a marketing standpoint, to find new and interesting ways to talk about that,' Brandt said. 'There's going to be various periods of ups and downs, but we'll stay the course, and find creative ways to keep telling our story and keep highlighting our difference. We think that will both build the brand for today, but also build the brand for tomorrow as well.' 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Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chipotle's new CEO is bringing back a missing ingredient to hit the chain's next goal—raising annual sales per store to $4 million
When Scott Boatwright joined Chipotle Mexican Grill as chief operating officer eight years ago, he worked closely with the burrito chain's founder, Steve Ells. Chipotle was laser-focused on operations at the time, as it looked to rebuild sales after a safety crisis a couple of years earlier. But Boatwright felt that there was one ingredient missing: an extra touch of hospitality. As Boatwright, CEO since last November, recalls it, Ells told him that Chipotle didn't need to be friendly, it just needed to be fast. That's changing now that Boatwright is in charge. And friendlier service is a key prong in his plan to leave his mark on a quick-service chain. 'Our team members got so focused on creating the experience efficiently that they can just forget to smile,' Boatwtright tells Fortune in a recent interview at Chipotle headquarters in Newport Beach, Calif. That doesn't mean an in-depth exchange about how your kids are doing in school, he hastens to add. But it does mean basic greetings and questions like 'What can I make fresh for you today?' or phrases like 'Thank you for spending your hard-earned money at Chipotle,' which Boatwright says do not slow employees down, but rather add a more welcoming vibe to what is after all a hospitality business. (His predecessor and former boss Brian Niccol, who decamped for Starbucks last year after a highly successful six-year stint at Chipotle, is doing something similar at the coffee-shop chain, instructing baristas to leave short personal notes on cups. But the trick, Boatwright cautions, for such touches to work is for them not to feel 'forced.') 'We're all fighting for market share, we're all fighting for dollars,' he says. And that means the right-brain skills of making customers feel welcome have to be deployed along with the left-brain skills needed for best-in-class operations. That's all the more important given that Chipotle's plan to grow includes more international expansion, notably its bold bet on Mexico, going deeper into smaller U.S. cities and trying to get more business from each of its 3,500 existing restaurants. In the 10 months since he took the reins, initially on an interim basis, Chipotle shares have barely budged, reflecint a 'wait-and-see' attitude on Wall Street. On the same day Boatwright told Wall Street investors about the smile-more campaign, Chipotle announced its plan to work with a partner to open restaurants in Mexico, the spiritual home of the burritos and quesadillas it sells. The news raised eyebrows, given that Taco Bell's attempts to conquer Mexico a few years ago flopped. Analyst Antonio Hernandez at Actinver Research wrote in a research note that 'familiarity with its ingredients does not necessarily predict success,' according to Reuters. But Chipotle's top executives insist there is place in the market for its Americanized Mexican food given its focus on freshness and high standards. 'We're not just another American fast-food place that's coming,' says chief brand and marketing officer Chris Brandt, using a term many in the industry find derogatory, preferring 'quick-service restaurant.' 'It seems a bit like a selling-ice-to-Eskimos type of thing,' he jokes. But, he says, the white space in the market for Chipotle is Mexican-esque food of a certain quality, and freshness of ingredients in a faster environment. What's more, the Mexican experiment, done in partnership with a restaurant operator, Alsea, that has extensive experience there, will tell Chipotle if and how fast it can go further afield in Latin America. Brandt and Boatwright both say they are not worried about any anti-American sentiment abroad that would affect Chipotle expansion, in light of the sparring between the U.S.'s and Mexico's governments in recent months. 'I don't know if that trickles down to brands,' says Boatwright. In addition, Chipotle plans to grow by generating more business at restaurants it already has and expanding to new markets Stateside. Last year, the average Chipotle had annual sales of $3.2 million, but chief financial officer Adam Rymer says that figure can hit $4 million in the not too distant future. (Rymer also sees the potential for Chipotle to hit 7,000 stores by expanding not only abroad but also domestically into smaller markets of say 30,000 people where restaurants like a Chili's or an Olive Garden might not go but where people might want more options than McDonald's or KFC.) As his colleague, brand chief Brandt, puts it: 'We are a real restaurant, and most places in our space are not.' This is where operations, Boatwright's area of expertise for years, comes in. Chipotle uses 53 ingredients to prepare its food and is working hard on equipment innovation to make cooking easier without affecting the final product. A produce slicer and a device to help workers cut onions quickly are just two of the changes being made to speed up production without, the executives insist, affecting quality. Boatwright would also like to see quicker food innovation and go from two limited-time-offer (LTOs in industry jargon) items a year, or a temporary additional menu item meant to stoke interest, to perhaps three. Data analytics more sophisticated than the ones it used just a few years ago have allowed Chipotle to avoid misfires with its LTOs, like the Garlic Guajillo Steak disappointment in 2022, giving Boatwright and his team more confidence to innovate. Currently, Chipotle has a hit on its hands with honey chicken bowls and burritos, a product inspired by a Nashville food trend. 'We're not adventurous at all,' says the CEO. 'We follow a very strict stage-gating process. We'll know long before its hits the market whether it's going to be successful or not.' But one thing no one should expect: lower priced items gumming up the menu. Chipotle tried that during the financial crash of 2008–2009, only to find customers yawning. 'We've seen in the past is that it really didn't lead to more visits,' says CFO Clymer. 'The market testing we've done found that people are really stuck on what it is they go to Chipotle for.' (The company was able to pass on much of the inflation in recent years to customers with little pushback, though executives say they are being careful regarding the impact of tariffs on items like avocados and Australian beef.) And so as Chipotle looks to build on its 2024 sales of $11.3 billion, and quickly reverse a same-restaurant sales decline last quarter, it has a number of levers at its disposal. But execs say they are mindful of the changes that can add to sales initially but that ultimately would damage a brand anchored in what it calls food integrity. 'When brands start trying to be everything to everyone, they lose their identity,' says Boatwright. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chipotle and Chick-fil-A helped increase new restaurant locations among top brands in 2024
Chick-fil-A and Chipotle were the tip of the spear in augmenting new restaurant locations last year among top brands, per a new report from food service research firm Technomic. Chick-fil-a grew its footprint by 4.9% in 2024 to a total of 3,109 restaurants, while Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) expanded 8.1% in the same period to a total of 3,644 locations, according to the firm's 'Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report.' It was the fourth year in a row of U.S. restaurants expanding their number of overall locations. 'Location development buoyed Top 500 performance,' the company said. 'The Top 500 footprint expanded by 1.6% in 2024 to a total of over 236,000 restaurants, marking the fourth consecutive year of robust location development for chain restaurants.' Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright said in a February earnings call that part of the company's success rested on 'tremendous progress' in expanding its footprint in Europe. The company, though, reported a 'slowdown' in consumer spending during the first quarter of 2025, citing customers foregoing restaurant visits to save money along with adverse weather. Meanwhile, Chick-fil-A had its sales slow in 2024, per Nation's Restaurant News. The fast-food chain is charting a $1 billion international expansion overseas starting with five new locations in the U.K. and one in Singapore this year. Chick-fil-A is also automating as part of a bigger strategy to reduce labor costs and improve company efficiency. It's tapping into other revenue streams as well, like selling lemon oil to the beauty and fragrance industries. The increased competition among chicken-based restaurants is prompting more jockeying to increase market share, especially as consumers get pickier about where and how they spend their cash. Raising Cane's was another chicken-based fast-food establishment that grew enormously last year. In 2024, it expanded by 13.9% and reached 828 destinations, according to the Technomic report. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Sign in to access your portfolio
