Over the past few years, Chipotle has managed to become a worthy contender in the fast-food industry by becoming one of the most recognizable brands while also boasting one of the highest customer satisfaction indexes in the industry1. Chipotle is widely recognized for its high quality food, fast preparation, and low prices. This reputation has helped Chipotle to grow, capture huge amounts of market share in the fast-food industry, and reform industry perceptions by offering a fast-casual eating environment. This can been seen through the company’s historical financial performance, which points to several core competencies that has allowed Chipotle to thrive. Since its initial IPO in 2006, Chipotle has seen an extremely impressive financial performance with an increase of over 2200%2. Even with such figures, however, Chipotle’s operating margins have remained average relative to the industry. Chipotle’s operating margin has seen little variation from 16% in the past few years. When comparing these figures to companies such as Noodles and McDonald’s, whose operating margins have been about 12% and 31% respectively, one would be inclined to notice McDonald’s greater return . However, it is important to mention that Chipotle’s and Noodle’s lower operating margins are primarily due to the nature of operating within the fast-casual restaurant industry. Restaurants within this industry typically spend more money on premium ingredients, building and interior décor, and employee training and benefits. Companies like Noodles and Chipotle also incur higher variable costs, which contribute to both companies’ lower margins. Additionally, the net margins for Chipotle and its competitors show a very similar trend to their operating margins. ... ... middle of paper ... .... 14. Ro, Sam. "Chipotle's Steak Burrito With Cheese And Guacamole Is Putting The Squeeze On Profit Margins." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 17 Apr. 2014. Web. 8 May 2014. . 15. McKnight, Clay. "The Price Difference Between Healthy Food & Fast Food." Healthy Eating. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2014. . 16. "Forbes." Forbes. “Price Rise of Eating Out.” Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014. . 17. Chamberlain, Michael. "Socially Responsible Investing: What You Need To Know." Forbes. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2014. . 18. "100 Fastest-Growing Companies 2012: Chipotle Mexican Grill." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 8 May 2014. .
As illustrated in the table above, the company has increased its restaurant-count by nearly 14% over the last three years. The management expects to open around 180-195 new restaurants this year. With that aim, Chipotle has already unveiled 44...
The fast food restaurant industry, which includes quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, is highly segmented with the top 50 companies accounting for only 25% of the industry’s sales. The $120 billion industry includes over 200,000 restaurants with 50% of those specializing in hamburger entrees. (hoovers.com 2008) The major competitors in the industry include McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, and KFC – Chick-fil-A’s major competitor in chicken sales. Chick-fil-A’s unique position in the market, specializing in chicken-based entrées, has lead to a competitive advantage which the company has been able to capitalize on. Recently, many competitors have added chicken entrees in order to compete in the market segment. Through marketing strategies and company initiatives, Chick-fil-A has tried to stay distant from competitors, offering a fresh alternative to the ordinary fast food restaurant.
As you know, Chipotle values our “food with integrity” promise and our customers respect that. However, the recent E Coli outbreak has caused Chipotle’s financial performance and reputation to suffer significantly and staying with our current business model is not our best option. Therefore, I recommend we rebrand and reposition Chipotle to ensure our long-term success.
Despite the economically uncertainty Pret A Manger keeps on thriving in the U.S. fast food market. It’s growing fast, with huge success. Pret is proving to the world its a big threat in the sandwich industry. In 2011, U.S. sales up 40% from the year before, “the company’s overall profits grew by 37% in 2010, and annual workforce turnover is only 60%, compared to fast food industry averages of 300-400%.” (Smart Advantage)
Section 1: Typically, we need a well-balanced meal to give us the energy to do day-to-day tasks and sometimes we aren’t able to get home cooked meals that are healthy and nutritious on a daily basis, due to the reasons of perhaps low income or your mom not being able to have the time to cook. People rely on fast food, because it’s quicker and always very convenient for full-time workers or anyone in general who just want a quick meal. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation argues that Americans should change their nutritional behaviors. In his book, Schlosser inspects the social and economic penalties of the processes of one specific section of the American food system: the fast food industry. Schlosser details the stages of the fast food production process, like the farms, the slaughterhouse and processing plant, and the fast food franchise itself. Schlosser uses his skill as a journalist to bring together appropriate historical developments and trends, illustrative statistics, and telling stories about the lives of industry participants. Schlosser is troubled by our nation’s fast-food habit and the reasons Schlosser sees fast food as a national plague have more to do with the pure presence of the stuff — the way it has penetrated almost every feature of our culture, altering “not only the American food, but also our landscape, economy, staff, and popular culture. This book is about fast food, the values it represents, and the world it has made," writes Eric Schlosser in the introduction of his book. His argument against fast food is based on the evidence that "the real price never appears on the menu." The "real price," according to Schlosser, varieties from destroying small business, scattering pathogenic germs, abusing wor...
Yu, Winnie and Joel Hay. 1999. “Drug Patents and Prices: Can we Achieve Better Outcomes?” Measuring the Prices of Medical Treatments. Pages 27-28.
Lehmann, Deborah. "Why School Cafeterias Are Dishing Out Fast Food (page 2)." Education.com. Education, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
As of 2016 there were 2,250 Chipotle restaurants worldwide. (Number of Chipotle Mexican Grill locations worldwide 2007-2016, 2017) Another interesting fact about Chipotle, is that in 1998 McDonald’s started investing in shares of Chipotle and by 2001 they had become the majority shareholder. In total McDonald’s invested over $360 million into Chipotle. (Myers, 2014) Although they have since split ways, the investment McDonald’s made into Chipotle helped to boost the growing power of the new to market concept burrito
Why are the prices so high? Some critics of the drug companies argue that the larger firms are ripping off the American public, are dishonest and, in some cases, unsafe. On the other hand, there are health care workers such as doctors and their supporters who claim that research and testing for drugs costs money. This supposedly justifies their prices for their products. Also, as an argument to their side, they say that their practice is a benefit to the improvement to mankind. It is a life saving business, but are these prices justified? As one can see, this is a very important issue in medicine today. It affects everyone involved with medicine, which is much of the American public. It also affects the physicians and drug makers.
Per capita spending on prescription drugs in America is far greater than any other country. Kesselheim goes on to say that this is a natural result of America’s free market approach to healthcare resulting in monopolies. These healthcare monopolies are not held accountable for their high drug prices. The claims that these costs can be justified through research and development is rubbish, according to
The United States spends more per capita on health care than any other country, with the percentage of gross domestic product dedicated to health care doubling from 9% in 1980 to 18% in 2011(Kesselheim,). One of the contributors to health care inflation is prescription drugs. Pharmaceuticals account for about 10% of total health care costs, spending on pharmaceuticals is poised to swell in upcoming years as a result of the increasing prices of complex specialty medicines (Kesselheim). Name brand drugs are going to have to be set at higher prices, in order for pharmaceutical companies to receive a profit. If the patient has full coverage on a medication, there is a greater chance that medication will be taken, although it may not be
The first social problem surrounding the health care system in the United States is the growing problem with pharmaceutical companies. The industry averages a 17% profit margin and it has been booming for decades, but the industry is being heavily led by a core group of companies (Dr. Pratt). “In 1992 the top 10 companies accounted for roughly one-third of global pharmaceutical revenue, after a period of consolidation, by 2001 the top 10 accounted for nearly half.”( Leon-Guerrero, Zentgraf, 172). These companies hold a large majority of the market share and make most of their money off patented drugs. This growing core of companies that are dominating the market are causing more problems rather than solving them. These companies are all about making as much money as they can and it shows through the salaries of the executives of these companies (Dr. Pratt). The pharmaceutical industry should have their number one priority be to the users of their products rather than profit gains.
In recent years’ health reform has been a driving force in the United States political system. If you watch the news you will undoughtabley hear how citizens, the government, or the economy is or might be effected by some sort of change in medical regulation. One of these hot topic issues is the cost of prescription drugs. Every major drug market besides the United States regulates the price of drugs in some way (Abbott and Vernon). By the United states not doing so many believes it opens consumers up to be exploited by large pharmaceuticals companies. Other believe regulating drug prices limits investment, innovation, and competition in the pharmaceutical industry. In many ways both views are correct yet the later may have more long term lasting
Kushner, Jason, ed. "Fast Food and Obesity Epidemic."Nutra Legacy. Nutralegacy.com , 12 Nov 2008. Web. 16 Jan 2014. .
Burger King uses a dispersed configuration for day to day operations as the majority of their restaurants are franchises with local suppliers. Yet Burger King Headquarters uses a concentrated configuration for marketing and development of products, as well as pricing. This centralization of marketing assists all franchises worldwide and provides the greatest value for the company, but the direction of available products and pricing has proven detrimental to the overall success of the firm. An article on CNNMoney.com describes the failure of the $1 double cheese burger to stimulate sales and how a number of franchisees filed lawsuits against the headquarters due to being forced to sell the double cheese burger at less than cost in order to boost revenues for the headquarters and shareholders and not the franchisees.