Who is the CEO of Chipotle? Restaurant chain announces they are raising their prices by 2% in the United States due to inflation

Mexican fast food chain Chipotle announced raising menu prices across the United States. Citing a statement made by the company's chief corporate affairs officer, Laurie Schalow, NBC News on Thursday, December 5, 2024, wrote:

"For the first time in over a year, we have taken a modest price increase of approximately 2% nationally to offset inflation."

Per the publication, Schalow's comments were in part a response confirming the report by the Truist Securities financial group, stating that they observed a 2% increase in menu prices at 20% of Chipotle locations they surveyed.

The announcement comes a month after the Mexican food chain announced appointing Scott Boatwright as its CEO (November 2024). Boatwright also served as its interim CEO since August following the abrupt departure of his predecessor Brian Niccol (who moved to Starbucks).

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Chipotle recently announced a rise in its food, beverage, and packaging costs in its third-quarter financial report

Back in October, Chipotle released its third-quarter financial report, which showed that the company's food, beverage, and packaging costs rose to 30.6% of its total revenue. To be noted, during the third quarter of last year, this was 29.7%.

Per the company, this increase was due to inflation in ingredient costs (specifically avocados and dairy), higher usage of ingredients to maintain "consistent and generous portions," and a shift of protein mix (after its limited-time offering of Smoked Brisket was met with success). Chipotle's report noted:

"(The) increase was partially offset by the benefit of menu price increases in the prior year."

According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) report released by the United States Department of Labor in October 2024, the price of beef in the country increased by an average of 1.9% as compared to its price a year ago, with dairy and fresh produce seeing an increase of 1.3% and 1.4%, respectively.

In its financial report, the fast food chain reported an increase in revenue of 13% since last year (2.8 billion) and a 6% increase in comparable restaurant sales. However, the benefit from the latter figure was offset by the wage increases in California restaurants.

The company is referring to the FAST Act (Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act) that the state passed in September 2023. The law increased the minimum wage of fast food employees from $16 to $20.

Per an October 2023 article by Fox Business, the last time Chipotle hiked menu prices was that month. At the time, they cited it was due to inflation as well.

Earlier this year (July 2024), the Mexican food franchise faced criticism for skimping on the portion sizes of its burrito bowls and burritos. At the time, Fox News, citing then-CEO Brian Niccol's comments during an earnings call, reported that there was no "directive" in the company to "provide less." Moreover, he assured that they would look into the issue.

There have been no other updates at the time of this writing.