In the midst of trying to convince customers to come back and eat at Chipotle a year after its national food safety crisis first started, it seems the chain doesn’t have the resources to cultivate other efforts, like its Asian-inspired ShopHouse chain.
It was only a few months ago that Chipotle said it was testing a burrito concept at ShopHouse, an idea that apparently failed to impress: on yesterday’s quarterly earnings call, the company said ShopHouse didn’t demonstrate the ability to support “an attractive unit economic model.”
Translation: it’s not making us money, so we’re not going to give the concept any more money.
“As a result, we have decided not to invest further in developing or growing the ShopHouse brand and will pursue strategic alternatives,” Co-CEO and founder Steve Ells said.
Those “strategic alternatives” could include selling off the brand or simply shutting down all 15 locations altogether.
Along with its namesake chain of restaurants, Chipotle is hoping customers will be into its new burger concept, TastyMade, which will open its first location in Columbus, OH on Thursday.
“Although the exotic ShopHouse cuisine was not able to attract sufficient customer loyalty and visit frequency to make it a viable growth strategy for us, we continue to believe that our approach to food, people, and unit economics with the right cuisine, with the right concept, can lead to a compelling growth strategy.”
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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