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Chipotle reaffirmed Monday that its outlook for same-store sales will decline in the low-single digit range for fiscal year 2025, which would mark the chain's first fiscal year same-store sales decline in more than 20 years.
In a note published last week, Bloomberg Intelligence senior restaurant and foodservice analyst Michael Halen wrote that same-store sales may have dropped 1.8% in 2025 based on consensus — its first decline in 23 years of publicly available data. During the chain’s E. coli crisis in 2015, comparable sales rose 0.2%.
He added that Chipotle's decision to ramp up discounting may lift traffic in the near term, but risks undermining brand equity.
“Promotions like free chips and buy-one-get-one offers likely gave same-store sales a bump in December and early January but signal a weaker value perception of full menu pricing to customers. We believe better operations, bigger meal sizes, and everyday value are superior ways to drive higher transactions and same-store sales. Portion (sizes), especially for to-go orders, continue to be an issue for customers,” he wrote.
Additionally, president and chief brand officer Chris Brandt has stepped down from his role, effective immediately. Brandt has been with the chain for nearly eight years and just last year added president to his title.
Brandt has overseen Chipotle's accelerated marketing efforts in the past few quarters aimed at winning back consumers, especially younger and lower-income consumers with whom the brand over indexes. In the third quarter, Chipotle reported a 90-basis-point increase in marketing spend year-over-year, including promotions such as a college football BOGO, December BOGOs, and Chipotle IQ digital trivia game.
Stephanie Perdue, who joined the company as vice president of brand marketing in 2018, will serve as the company’s chief marketing officer on an interim basis.
Further, Roger Theodoredis, who has served as chief legal officer since 2018, has also stepped down from the company, effective immediately.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
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