Dive Brief:
- Chipotle is preparing its major technological initiatives for new rounds of testing and expansion, CEO Brian Niccol said on the chain’s earnings call Wednesday.
- The brand has tested its dual-sided grills in 10 restaurants with positive results and now plans to deploy the technology in at least 74 high-volume restaurants and will “evaluate the economics prior to rolling it out further across the organization,” Niccol said. This technology can cook chicken and steak in half the time of its current grill.
- The chain’s more advanced tech, namely its digital makeline and robotic avocado processor are undergoing final checks ahead of in-restaurant pilot testing Niccol told analysts. CFO Jack Hartung said on the same call that the makeline would be ready for restaurant testing in August or September.
Dive Insight:
An early promotional video for Chipotle’s automated makeline showed ingredient bouncing out of bowls and landing inside the machine, raising questions about the technology’s safety. Niccol said on the earnings call that the brand’s technology testing process accounted for safety.
“Our food safety and operation teams have worked closely with our technology teams to assure that the design takes into account things like cleaning, speed and accuracy,” Niccol said.
Hartung hinted at other equipment changes the brand is considering to increase efficiency.
“We’ve got things that make us more efficient with prep, whether it's Autocado, a veggie slicer, a dual-sided grill, looking at modifications to our rice cooker, our fryer equipment,” Hartung said. “There's a lot of things going on back at house to make us more effective culinary-wise, prep-wise, which then sets us up to be successful consistently.”
Chipotle has dedicated considerable resources to the development of new culinary equipment through its Cultivate Next Fund, which backed Vebu, the maker of the avocado processing machine, Autocado, and Hyphen, the firm developing Chipotle automated makeline for digital orders. Initially capitalized at $50 million in 2022, Chipotle doubled its investment in the fund earlier this year. But the key to handling the company’s high order volumes so far this year has been increased deployment of labor, rather than eye-catching technical changes.
