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Original inspiration for Chipotle (1988-1993)

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Original inspiration for Chipotle (1988-1993)

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Steve Ells is an American business man. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1988 with a degree in Art History. He then went on to attend The Culinary Institute of America in 1990. From here he had an end goal to open a luxury restaurant, the only problem was he had no money to fund this dream. He was inspired to open a “burrito and taco” shop temporarily to make some quick money. He opened the first chipotle in Denver, Colorado with hopes of making enough money from it to shut it down and move on to his end goal. After his first couple days of the grand opening he had gained a decent amount of publicity but nothing crazy. After a couple weeks a journalist had visited this location a couple times and approached Ells. He told Ells he was posting a review on Chipotle on to his blog. This is when Chipotle blew up, quickly Ells decided to ditch his end goal and pursue Chipotle.

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Factors of production - Land
Ells knew from the start that he wants to keep his ingredients fresh and local. He researched and visited local farms to purchase ingredients from. All his ingredients are locally sourced, organic and fresh. Steve Ells wanted to be able to support and fund local farmers by staying local and buying from their farms instead of going the route other fast food chains do by buying from national mass producers. All these farms are no more than 350 miles away from that specific restaurant. This mileage rule also prevents any damage or harm to the ingredients as well as them being as fresh as possible This is what sets Chipotle apart from other fast food restaurants.

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Factors of production- Labor
The first original team of crews members working at Chipotle was Steve Ells and a few of his friends. They quickly realized that with Chipotle growing and expanding they were going to have to do the same with their team. They hired crew members who work on the assembly line for $9.00/hr. Many chefs that required no experience at all for $9.15/hr and kitchen managers for $11.35/hr. These jobs also include medical insurance, paid vacations, free meals, 401 retirement plan, clothing, bonuses, and tuition reimbursement when joining the Chipotle team. There are other jobs available including general managers, apprentices, restaurant restaurateurs, (etc.)

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Minh Tsai, first-generation immigrant from Vietnam is Chipotles largest Tofu producer and cook. Cooks named Steve and Nate have also assisted Tsai in adding extra flavor and improving the Tofu to a higher level quality than it is already at. Although Minh Sai produces and sources his Tofu to Chipotle he has his own company called “Hodo Soy Beanery” located in Oakland. He created this company due to the lack of variety of Tofu in the Bay Area compared to Vietnam where he originated from. He has now also expanded to partnering with Illinois and Indiana farmers to gain access to the best, organic, non-GMO soy beans.

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Factor of Production - Capital
Five years after the grand-opening of Chipotle in Denver, Colorado Ells had grown to be wildly successful and wanted to find new ways to expand Chipotle more. The board of directors, who were all family friends of Ells had already invested into the company but Ells wanted bigger. A board of director on Ells team had a friend who worked for McDonald’s. This friend was able to get Ells an invite to a McDonald’s Board meeting, at this meeting Ells brought in the tacos and Burritos sold at his locations, the Board loved them. Steve Ells was granted $50 million in the first year to fund Chipotle and help it grow. Due to this surge in income Chipotle was able to open 500 new restaurants. By 2005 McDonald’s almost owned Chipotle fully by growing its investment percentage 90%. With McDonald’s almost being full owners of Chipotle they had some changes they brought to the table. They wanted Chipotle to become a franchise, create drive-throughs, adjusting the menu to different parts of the country, and lastly adding breakfast to their menu. Chipotle ignored all these suggestions and McDonald’s decided to sell all their shares back to Chipotle in 2006. After this split Chipotle went public with their company basically doubling their stock price.

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Factor of production - Entrepreneurship
When Steve Ells was beginning his career he wanted nothing to do with business. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a degree in Art history and then went on to graduate from Culinary School as a classically trained chef. He then knew he wanted to open a fine-dining restaurant but needed a source of income to support this. He started Chipotle and expected it to just be a temporary business that would fuel into his end goal. He gained a small loan of $85,000 from his father and an $800/month small building. Even going in to opening Chipotle he still wanted nothing to do with anything Business. He had little to no knowledge on any business terms or education. He quickly realized that he was going to have to gain some knowledge on this as Chipotle started to expand and grow he knew he had no choice but to become educated. Steve Ells has now become a known businessman with 339,474 shares of Chipotle stock and is now worth over $200 million.

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Steve Ells served as CEO of Chipotles CEO from 1993 to 2009. He then split CEO duties in 2009 with Monty Moran. They served as co-CEO until 2016 when Moran retired and  Ells returned back to single CEO on December 12, 2016. On March 5, 2018 Steve Ells stepped down as CEO of Chipotle and allowed Brian Niccol to step in an take on this role. Steve Ells now sits on the board of directors of the Land Institute.