Chipotle Puts Carnitas Back on the Menu
Chipotle Mexican Grill has announced that it has restored most of its pork supply and is again serving carnitas in 90% of its restaurants.
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Chipotle stopped serving carnitas at over a third of its restaurants earlier this year after one of its primary pork suppliers failed to meet routine auditing standards under the company’s pork protocol.
These high standards require that pigs are raised with access to the outdoors or deeply bedded barns, without the use of antibiotics and with no gestation crates. These practices are completely opposite with how pigs are conventionally raised. As a result, Chipotle opted to pull carnitas from hundreds of restaurants rather than compromise its commitment to animal welfare.
Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO at Chipotle, said:
The decision to stop selling carnitas in many of our restaurants was an easy one. We simply will not compromise our high standards for animal welfare. Since making this decision, we have heard from thousands of our customers who have expressed support for our decision, and commended us for standing on principle. Now, we are excited to have carnitas back in nearly all of our restaurants, and want to thank our customers for their patience while we worked to address this issue.
Currently the option for carnitas is now available at all Chipotle locations in the United States with the exception of restaurants in the Cleveland and Atlanta areas, and in North and South Carolina.
The company has been able to replenish its pork supply working with existing suppliers and by adding a new partner, United Kingdom-based Karro Food. Karro produces pork from pigs raised to Chipotle’s standards for animal welfare.
Shares of Chipotle were down 2.4% at $712.75 on Monday afternoon. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $762.26 and a 52-week trading range of $597.33 to $758.61.
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
