CHIPOTLE Franchise Startup Cost, Profit & Opportunities

Chipotle Franchise is a restaurant specialist in Mexican food that provides a safer option for many fast-food out there. The unpredictable nature of fast-food customers has made going into this industry very difficult and unreliable.

The good news is that many of them are now going for healthy alternatives.

HISTORY OF THE COMPANY

The Chipotle Mexican Grill was established in the year 1993 by Steve Ells. The 1st restaurant was opened in Denver, Colorado, not a far distance from the University of Denver. It was a big success then due to the location and 2 years later, in 1995 he was able to open a second restaurant.

Then in the year 1998, after the restaurant chain boomed and began to gain so much popularity, it got an investment boost from McDonald’s. As of this present day, Chipotle Mexican Grill has more than 1200 restaurant locations in more than 40 states of the United States of America. They have stores in Canada as well as in England.

CHIPOTLES MARKETING STRATEGY

The company boasts of a management team that has a full understanding of how to build and market a restaurant chain successfully utilizing 21st Century marketing strategies. They do not rely on the old conventional style of marketing just as other restaurants do, such as expensive TV advertisements and emails. What Chipotle does is to focus on Social Media Marketing, word-of-mouth brand marketing, and the use of web videos.

This is one of the reasons why they are in top demand by most business owners. They have proven that success in the restaurant chain can be achieved with great ease and application of innovations to drive up sales. But now the question is does Chipotle sell Franchise? We will get to know about the consequent article sections.

IS CHIPOTLE A FRANCHISE?

Chipotle Mexican Grill takes pride in offering fresh food produced from raw ingredients that are directly sourced from the farm and they are the first restaurant to switch to non-GMO in the year 2015.

For those entrepreneurs that might want to know how to buy a Chipotle Franchise?  It is quite unfortunate that the company does not sell any franchise opportunity at the moment. They have strictly tried to avoid the operation of a standard franchise model.

McDonald’s investment in the company in 1998 could have been the medium for Chipotle to start selling Franchise since McDonald’s had so much influence on their corporate operations during the eight-year period it was involved financially with the company.

But Ells being at the top of the company’s affair saw that the company maintained its stand of not using the franchise model.  Although he does not rule out selling Chipotle Franchise in the future, his interest in keeping activities as they are circle round the passion to influence more control over the entire Chipotle’s work operation and also allowing his employees to move to the position of general managers anytime a new chipotle location is opened. This style of promote-from-within culture keeps Chipotle strong.

HOW MUCH DOES A CHIPOTLE FRANCHISE COST?

Of all the 1200 Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants spread across the world, there are only a few of them that are Chipotle’s Franchises. These franchises were only fortunate to have been granted licenses in the early days of the company.

Aside from that, there is no Chipotle’s Franchise. Since the company has been able to achieve great success in the running of their activities, the franchising plan was shelved to favor outright company ownership and full control.

So Chipotle’s Franchise Cost is just basically an expansion cost and this is the responsibility of the company without any external interference.

Additionally, Chipotle’s decision not to sell franchises has granted the company control over its employee culture that you might not be able to get with most franchises. They influence everything from the company structure to employees’ wages.

Although Chipotle has refused to sell franchise there are a lot of people willing to try the company out with the opportunity to tap into their success story. Franchise cost stands at $0 at the moment.

CHIPOTLES’ EXPANSION REVIEW

Yes, the company might seem huge at the moment, but they still have a lot of expansion to do if they truly have the goal to compete with the big-shots in the restaurant chain business. At the moment, they have just 1,680 restaurant location, this is simply a meager unit compared to what giants like McDonald’s have. McDonald’s can boast of more than 34,000 restaurants in different parts of the world.

Chipotle only has 17 restaurants outside of the United States, although the company has plans to open more restaurants overseas in the coming year. If they want to compete successfully on the international scene, maybe it’s time Chipotle considers the franchise option. This will give them more leverage for expansion.

WHY CHIPOTLE DOESN’T FRANCHISE

Almost every popular restaurant sells franchises, so one will wonder why Chipotle takes an exception. With more than 1900 restaurants and lots of prospective franchisees that are willing to get on board, why hasn’t the restaurant started selling franchises? Well, the answer to that might be: The Company does not need to sell.

A statement attributed to the company’s communication director, Chris Arnold goes thus “We want to have a belief that most companies sell franchise opportunities for two reasons, It is either they require more money to expand or they need more hands to operate their restaurants, at Chipotle, we don’t need either”

CHIPOTLE EXPANSION PLAN

Although the company has close to 200 location spread across the United States, they still take expansion as one of the goals of the company. The total locations that the company has are just a meager sum compared to other competitors in the industry. So there is a vast work ongoing to get more locations in most parts of the United States.

HOW MUCH DOES A CHIPOTLE FRANCHISE MAKE

There are no Chipotle Franchise owners, so it will be quite difficult to ascertain the average income a franchisee with the company makes. However, an average Chipotle restaurant makes about $200,000 in revenue every year.

FRANCHISE ALTERNATIVE AT CHIPOTLE

Since the company does not sell franchises, the accept recommendations for locations. So if you have any suggestions based on this, you can contact them via the company’s website. The public should also be aware that Chipotle Mexican Grill is a member of the NYSE, so if you have the zeal to do business with the company, you can invest in their shares.

HOW TO OPEN A CHIPOTLE FRANCHISE

Well, the information in this article has talked about the Chipotle Franchise as not being existent and also the alternative that the company offers. There is no information on how to open a Chipotle Franchise, however, the only option available is to take up a career opportunity with the company.

There are always openings in every Chipotle Store. You can forward your application to the nearest one to you. As a staff of the company, you can be so fortunate to work your way to the top. This will give you so much exposure to the Chipotle Restaurant Concept and you can then proceed from there to establish your own business.