Chipotle Timeline by

Steve Ells Creates Chipotle (July 13, 1993)

connortschepen — 2024-02-21 14:57:14 UTC

He was a chef that was working at a high end restaurant in San Francisco. But after eating at a local taqueria he saw how busy it was and got his own idea to open up a restaurant and sell burritos in order to earn enough money to open his own gourmet restaurant. He then opened his first restaurant in Denver on July 13, 1993.

Idea for Chipotle(1992)

connortschepen — 2024-02-21 15:14:57 UTC

Entrepreneurship: The idea for Chipotle was a combination between food borrowed from Stars and techniques and a service format from the taquerias. Also he wanted to go to a place where no one has seen that type of service before.

Chipotle Becomes a publicly traded Company (2006)

connortschepen — 2024-02-21 15:22:38 UTC

On January 26, 2006, Chipotle made its initial public offering. In its first day as a public company the stock rose exactly 100% which was in the best U.S. based IPO in six years, and the second-best IPO for a restaurant

Steve acquiring the land and money to open his first restaurant (1993)

connortschepen — 2024-02-21 15:24:31 UTC

Land: He had a friend in Denver and he somehow met a commercial real estate broker. He proposed his idea to him and he loved it. After that they looked at a site near the Denver campus that was in bad condition but it was cheep. He convinced his father to lend him the money which was part investment part loan. The loan ended up being around $85,000 to refinish and open the first restaurant.

Chipotle Expands (1995)

connortschepen — 2024-02-21 15:48:20 UTC

Capital: His first location was crazy busy and he became profitable within a couple of months. He payed his dad back quickly but his dad was skeptical about how much money he was making. In his mind he was still thinking about opining a fine dining restaurant, but everyone was asking when are you going to open another location. Everyone was pressuring him to open another location and it was funded mostly by cash flow. When he opened his next location it was even more busy then the first one. He started signing up for leases and also used his dad to start expanding. At this point he didn't have a business plan and his dad told him to make one.

McDonalds invested in Chipotle (1998)

connortschepen — 2024-02-23 15:20:28 UTC

Capital: McDonalds invested in Chipotle starting in 1998 and gradually increased their investment over 7 years. Their total investment totaled up to around $360 million dollars. At one point they owned nearly 90% of Chipotle and then they divested all of it in 2006. This money helped Chipotle greatly expand and open new restaurants. By 2006 and when McDonalds divested they had over 500 stores open.

Steve Ells steps down as CEO (2017)

connortschepen — 2024-02-25 19:21:04 UTC

Steve Ells stepped down as the CEO of Chipotle in 2017 because the company faced a series of foodborne illness outbreaks and conflicts. The E. coli outbreak at Chipotle restaurants across the country made hundreds of customers sick and caused the closure of 43 Chipotle restaurants. Chipotle lost millions of dollars from the outbreak. Brian Niccol took over as CEO following the departure of Steve Ells.

Dealing with employees and creating new positions (1998-2005)

connortschepen — 2024-02-25 19:40:16 UTC

Labor: He never thought of himself as a CEO and never went to business school. He said he learned along the way on how to deal with people, personal, and management. He got good at finding really good people which then helped him scale further and run the company as it continued to grow.