Chipotle’s CEO has made a shocking admission after the popular Mexican chain was accused of shrinking portion sizes.
Brian Niccol, the chairman and CEO of Chipotle, announced during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday that Chipotle has found more than 10 percent of its 3,500 locations were scoring poorly on portion sizes.
Niccol told analysts that the company is now investing in retraining employees at those ‘outlier’ locations to make sure they’re putting the right amount of ingredients in burritos and bowls.
‘We’ll invest in it, and we’ll figure out how to make sure we consistently do it every time,’ he said, adding that the company was ‘committed to making this investment to reinforce that Chipotle stands for a generous amount of delicious, fresh food at fair prices for every customer visit.’
However, Niccol admitted that this change will only be implemented at the 10 percent of the chain’s restaurants that are currently scoring poorly, while it appears to be business as usual for the remaining 90 percent of restaurants.
Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol has denied the portion sizes are getting smaller as he revealed he would be training staff to ensure consistency across his stores
Niccol also firmly denied any plot to short-change customers.
‘First, there was never a directive to provide less to our customers,’ he said, ‘Generous portion is a core brand equity of Chipotle. It always has been, and it always will be.’
‘Our guests expect this now more than ever, and we are committed to making this investment to reinforce that Chipotle stands for a generous amount of delicious (and) fresh food at fair prices for every customer every visit,’ Niccol said.
This response comes after widespread social media complaints about shrinking portion sizes at Chipotle, which led to customer dissatisfaction and viral videos.
It came after Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem and his team set out to test the theory that Chipotle has been skimping on its once-large portions, following a series of videos posted to TikTok showed employees barely filling their burrito bowls.
The team ordered and weighed 75 bowls from eight locations across New York City, and kept variables the same by ordering the same ingredients – white rice, black beans, chicken, pico de gallo, cheese and lettuce, according to Barrons.
Nicol was forced to respond after Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem and his team set out to test the theory that Chipotle has been skimping on its once-large portions
This response comes after widespread social media complaints about shrinking portion sizes at Chipotle, which led to customer dissatisfaction and viral videos
They were stunned to find huge variation across the locations, with some serving bowls that weighed up to 33 percent more than others.
The largest burrito bowl the team ordered came out to 27 ounces, while the smallest was just 14 ounces.
Among all 75 burrito bowls – which were divvied out for Wells Fargo analysts’ lunches – the median weight was about 21.5 ounces.
Fadem’s study comes after months of TikTokers claiming that Chipotle workers were skimping on their ingredients.
The trend began in early May, when Keith Lee – a former mixed martial arts fighter and TikTok food critic who has more than 16million followers on the app – posted a video showing him digging into a burrito bowl, and seemingly not finding any of the chicken he ordered.
‘These portions be crazy,’ he said in the video.
Later that month, another influencer, Isaac Francis, filmed himself ordering at Chipotle and indignantly asking for more rice and chicken.
Zachary Fadem found huge discrepancies in portion sizes from location to location
He wrote in the caption of the video that he ‘couldn’t let’ the employee ‘disrespect me with that protein size’.
However, employees soon hit back at the ‘dehumanizing’ trend, saying being filmed a work was causing them stress.
Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs officer, also told CNN that bowl sizes may vary by the number of ingredients a customer chooses or if they opt to make any ingredient ‘light’ or ‘extra light.’
But Nicol said customers were free to ask for more of any topping, stating that he wants his clientele to be ‘excited’ by the food.
However, the controversy has not harmed Chipotle’s sales, which beat analysts’ expectations to rise by around 18 percent in the second quarter.
