When you’re stumped trying up at the menu of a Chipotle, you possibly can take inspiration from CEO Brian Niccol’s go-to order: a hen burrito bowl with white rice, fajita veggies, pico de gallo, and “a bit” cheese. That’s along with an accompanying barbacoa quesadilla and, in fact, chips and guac.
“It’s most likely a bit an excessive amount of meals for my age,” Niccol informed Fortune. “However, you understand, it’s arduous to withstand.”
Although he by no means labored behind the counter at Chipotle, Niccol has skilled firsthand what it takes to assemble his meal, amongst many others. After taking on as CEO of the fast-casual chain in 2018, a part of Niccol’s initiation was coaching at a location in Denver, the place he discovered the right way to put together the chain’s greens and toppings, handle the restaurant’s peak lunch hours, and be taught the ability that’s maybe most lauded amongst fast-food staff: bundling a burrito’s elements right into a tightly wrapped tortilla.
“Wrapping a burrito is an artwork,” Niccol stated.
Self-admittedly sluggish to be taught burrito wrapping and in want of repetition to grow to be proficient on the road, Niccol admitted he “ripped just a few too many” tortillas throughout his coaching course of. However the behind-the-counter expertise gave him a deeper appreciation for the employees who put together and serve Chipotle’s meals, which helped generate $2.7 billion in first–quarter income for the corporate, and grew the corporate to over 3,300 areas in 48 states.
“Lots of people don’t notice there’s quite a lot of precision that goes into the best way our groups make the rice, prepare dinner the hen, prepare dinner the steak,” Niccol stated. “It actually issues the best way we lower, the best way we prep every part. That was fairly eye-opening to see, particularly on the scale at which now we have to do it.”
Heaping on success
But when studying the artwork of burrito-wrapping was a steep studying curve for Niccol, reviving the corporate from a soured repute should have been its personal abdomen ache for the brand new CEO.
When Niccol turned the corporate’s chief in 2018, Chipotle was nonetheless reeling from the impression of its 2016 E. coli outbreaks that sickened over a thousand clients, forcing the corporate to quickly shut down over 40 areas. Chipotle’s comparable gross sales fell 20% 12 months over 12 months following the outbreak, and the corporate coughed up $25 million in 2020, the largest-ever high quality in a federal meals security case.
Chipotle recovered underneath Niccol’s steering thanks to a couple key adjustments: It moved from Denver to Newport Seashore to be nearer to Irvine, the place Niccol was wrapping up his tenure as CEO of Taco Bell, a subsidiary of Yum Manufacturers and residential to a expertise pool of fast-food staff. He grew Chipotle’s loyalty program and app, which helped the corporate maintain clients coming again to its areas by the pandemic. Chipotle put elevated emphasis on touting contemporary elements and leaned into the open-kitchen structure of its eating places, asking workers to assume extra like cooks and offering extra info on every ingredient. Niccol stated this perspective shift elevated a fast-food idea into extra of a sit-down restaurant really feel.
“There’s something to the sights and sounds of Chipotle, listening to the grill and seeing guys chopping hen and seeing individuals banging pans,” Niccol informed Fortune in 2023. “You need these sounds, and also you need these smells.”
Right this moment the corporate is grappling with choices to elevate costs to offset will increase in wages, in addition to shopper backlash over the flexibility to solely order some menu gadgets on-line—together with Niccol’s favourite barbacoa quesadilla—and portion sizes, which some say have dwindled. The accusations over skimpy burrito bowls have even led some clients to movie workers making ready their meals, claiming staff heap on proteins and toppings in entrance of a cellphone digital camera. Niccol insists Chipotle’s parts are simply as beneficiant as they’ve all the time been.
“We all the time need to give individuals large parts that get them excited in regards to the meals,” he stated. “If you wish to double the quantity of meat, you gotta pay for it, however our purpose is to get individuals actually enthusiastic about what I consider is de facto scrumptious meals.”
