type public traded as nyse cmg s & p 500 index component industry fast casual founded july 13 1993 ; 23 years ago 1993 07 13 1 founder steve ells headquarters denver colorado u.s. number of locations 2 010 2015 2 area served united states canada united kingdom germany france key people steve ells chairman and co ceo revenue us 4.5 billion 2015 2 operating income us 763.6 million 2015 2 net income us 475.6 million 2015 2 total assets us 2.73 billion 2015 2 total equity us 1.245 billion 2012 3 number of employees 45 200 2013 4 5 divisions shophouse southeast asian kitchen website chipotle.com chipotle mexican grill inc. t po tle 6 is an american chain of fast food restaurants in the united states united kingdom 7 canada 8 9 germany 10 and france 11 specializing in tacos and burritos . its name derives from chipotle the nahuatl name for a smoked and dried jalape o chili pepper . 12 the company currently trades on the new york stock exchange under the ticker symbol cmg . 13 the company has released a mission statement called food with integrity which highlights its efforts in using naturally grown ingredients 6 and serves more naturally raised meat than any other restaurant chain . 14 chipotle is one of the first chains of fast casual dining establishments . 15 competitors in the fast casual mexican market include qdoba mexican grill moe s southwest grill rubio s coastal grill pancheros mexican grill freebirds world burrito and baja fresh . 16 founded by steve ells in july 1993 chipotle had 16 restaurants all in colorado when mcdonald s corporation became a major investor in 1998 . by the time mcdonald s fully divested itself from chipotle in 2006 17 the chain had grown to over 500 locations . with more than 2 000 locations 2 chipotle had a net income of us 475.6 million and a staff of more than 45 000 employees in 2015 . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 other restaurant expansion 2 international 3 corporate management 3.1 operation and distribution 4 menu 4.1 nutrition 4.2 food sourcing 5 food safety 5.1 march 2008 hepatitis outbreak 5.2 april 2008 norovirus outbreak 5.3 february 2009 campylobacter jejuni outbreak 5.4 july 2015 e. coli outbreak 5.5 august 2015 norovirus outbreak 5.6 august 2015 salmonella outbreak 5.7 october 2015 e. coli outbreak 5.8 november 2015 e. coli cases 5.9 december 2015 norovirus outbreak 5.10 consequences 6 advertising and publicity 7 architecture 8 other restaurant units 9 references 10 further reading 11 external links history edit the first chipotle near the campus of the university of denver founder steve ells attended the culinary institute of america in hyde park new york . afterward he became a line cook for jeremiah tower at stars in san francisco . 18 there ells observed the popularity of the taquer as and san francisco burritos in the mission district . in 1993 ells took what he learned in san francisco 19 and opened the first chipotle mexican grill in denver colorado in a former dolly madison ice cream store at 1644 east evans avenue 20 near the university of denver campus using an 85 000 loan from his father . 17 ells and his father calculated that the store would need to sell 107 burritos per day to be profitable . after one month the original restaurant was selling over 1 000 burritos a day . 13 the second store opened in 1995 using chipotle s cash flow and the third was opened using an sba loan . to fund more growth ells father invested 1.5 million . afterwards ells created a board of directors and business plan raising an additional 1.8 million for the company . 21 ells had originally planned to use funds from the first chipotle to open a fine dining restaurant but instead focused on chipotle mexican grill when the restaurants saw success . 22 23 in 1998 the first restaurant outside of colorado opened in kansas city missouri . 24 the company opened its first location in minnesota by opening near the campus of the university of minnesota in minneapolis in march 1999 . 25 in 1998 mcdonald s made an initial minority investment in the company . by 2001 the company had grown to be chipotle s largest investor . 17 the investment from mcdonald s allowed the firm to quickly expand from 16 restaurants in 1998 to over 500 by 2005 . 26 on january 26 2006 chipotle made its initial public offering ipo after increasing the share price twice due to high pre ipo demand . in its first day as a public company the stock rose exactly 100 % resulting in the best u.s. based ipo in six years and the second best ipo for a restaurant after boston market . the money from the offering was then used to fund new store growth . 27 in october 2006 mcdonald s fully divested from chipotle . 28 this was part of a larger initiative for mcdonald s to divest all of its non core business restaurants chipotle donatos pizza and boston market so that it could focus on the main mcdonald s chain . 29 mcdonald s invested approximately 360 million into chipotle and took out 1.5 billion . 21 mcdonald s had attempted to get chipotle to add drive through windows and a breakfast menu which ells resisted . 30 31 in 2008 chipotle opened its first location outside of the united states in toronto . 9 in a list of fastest growing restaurant chains in 2009 chipotle was ranked eighth based on increases in u.s. sales over the past year 32 and in 2010 chipotle was ranked third . 33 consumer reports ranked chipotle as the best mexican fast food chain in 2011 . 34 the company serves approximately 750 000 customers per day . 35 in december 2010 chipotle hired chef nate appleman to develop new cuisine . appleman has won rising star chef from the james beard foundation was named best new chef by food & wine magazine and competed on the next iron chef . 36 in 2010 u.s. immigration and customs enforcement ice audited chipotle s minneapolis restaurants and found that some employees had been hired using fraudulent documents . in december chipotle fired 450 employees from its minneapolis restaurants as a result of the audit resulting in protests by local groups . 37 38 in february 2011 ice expanded the audit to include 60 restaurants in virginia and washington d.c. 39 which resulted in 40 workers being fired . in april 2011 the criminal division of the attorney general s office in washington d.c. joined the case and ice agents began interviewing employees at 20 to 25 restaurants in other locations such as los angeles and atlanta . 40 in response to the government investigations chipotle hired former director of ice julie myers wood and high profile attorneys robert luskin and gregory b. craig . 41 other restaurant expansion edit in 2011 steve ells was a judge for the tv show america s next great restaurant and investor of angr holdings the company that will be running the winning concept s restaurants . chipotle has agreed to purchase ells investment in angr at his cost provide support for angr operations and invest a total of 2.3 million in cash contributions . 42 in september 2011 chipotle opened an asian fast casual concept restaurant named shophouse southeast asian kitchen in washington d.c. 43 the company has said the new restaurant would follow the chipotle service format and its focus on food with integrity in ingredients . 44 chipotle s plan was to start with only one store and see how the restaurant works out before expanding the concept . 45 on december 18 2013 the company revealed that it had opened its first fast food pizza chain in denver back in may 2013 . according to associated press chipotle partnered with a local full service restaurant called pizzeria locale to create a fast food version of the eatery keeping its name . the company plans to open at least two more pizzerias in the denver area . 46 in april 2014 chipotle announced an increase in menu prices for the first time in nearly three years due to increasing costs for steak avocados and cheese . the price increase was expected to be rolled out from the end of second quarter of 2014 through the end of the third quarter . 47 in late 2015 chipotle expanded its mobile strategy through delivery partnerships with tech startups like tapingo a delivery service that targets college campuses . 48 on july 29 2016 the company announced the opening of its first tasty made burger restaurant in the fall . chipotle was still dealing with the various virus outbreaks with additional marketing . the company was also reducing the number of new stores for the year from 235 to 220 . 49 international edit the second chipotle mexican grill location in london located on baker street according to an article in the motley fool chipotle had 17 locations outside of the united states by october 2014 with the majority in canada and the uk and was in the process of opening more locations . 50 in august 2008 chipotle opened its first location outside of the united states in toronto . 9 the second location in toronto and canada was not opened until 2010 . 51 the first canadian location outside of toronto area was open in vancouver in december 2012 . 52 except for the single location in vancouver all canadian locations were within the toronto area at the end of 2014 . chipotle has expanded to europe with the first european restaurant opened in may 2010 in london . 7 53 54 a second location open in london in september 2011 . 55 the following year three addition location were quickly opened in the london area . 56 after this growth spurt the rate of further expansion in london slowed greatly with the sixth location appearing in 2013 57 and the seventh in june 2015 . 58 although chipotle blames the slow growth in the united kingdom on the british unfamiliarity with mexican foods several locally owned burrito chains had opened locations across the united kingdom during the same interval . a location first opened in paris in france in may 2012 11 59 and frankfurt in germany in august 2013 . 10 60 expansion in france was much slower than that in the united kingdom or canada with a second location in paris opening in 2013 61 and a third location in 2014 . 62 at 7 000 square feet the restaurant at la d fense is as of 2015 update the largest chipotle location in the world while a typical chipotle restaurant is usually between 2 200 and 2 500 square feet . 63 a fourth parisian location was opened in levallois perret in 2015 . 64 by may 2016 there were 25 locations outside of the united states with 9 locations in toronto 1 location in vancouver 6 locations in london 3 in paris and 1 in frankfurt . 2 65 the rate of overseas expansion was slower than expected . 51 many of the press reviewers thought that the food was overpriced for their area . 11 60 corporate management edit chipotle s team includes a residing corporate office of managers and its board of directors . members of both teams are appointed to serve on committees audit compensation and nominating and corporate governance . the top management team consists of the co chief executive officers the chief financial officer the chief development officer and the chief marketing officer . seven individuals currently sit on the board of directors steve ells montgomery moran patrick flynn albert baldocchi neil flanzraich darlene friedman and john charlesworth . 66 founder steve ells serves as