Chief Executive Officer & Director, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc
Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright Talks pricing & expansions | Bloomberg Talks
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is heading south to plant its next flag, betting that an American brand can sell Mexican-inspired food to Mexicans. Speaking to BTV's Romaine Bostick and Katie Greifeld, Boatwright says “We serve customers across all income cohorts here in the US. We feel like we have that same opportunity in every country we go into."
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About Scott Boatwright
On Chipotle's first quarter 2026 earnings call, CEO Scott Boatwright reported that the company's "recipe for growth" strategy is driving traffic across income cohorts. He noted a 25% uplift in new loyalty members since the program's relaunch, which he said widened the customer funnel while deepening engagement with existing members. Boatwright stated that Chipotle is pricing below inflation to reinforce its value proposition, and that the company maintains a 20–30% discount to fast-casual peers, giving it "pricing flexibility." He also mentioned a test of a "happier hour" from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. in one market, offering tacos at $2.50. Boatwright said new restaurants are achieving double-digit margins and a 40% return on investment in year two. He attributed a prior sales deceleration to an "anomaly" and described a renewed focus on hospitality that led to "hard decisions" about restaurant employees. He added that the company is building on a strong team with the addition of a new chief brand officer and chief digital officer, and expects transaction improvements as initiatives around heat, group occasions, rewards, and restaurant execution scale over time.
Transcript (15 segments)
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Host0:02
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news. Some breaking news. We've learned that Chipotle, the Tex-Mex chain that is primarily based here in the United States, is set to open its first location in Mexico later this week. It's a substantial expansion that will eventually extend to Mexico City in 2027. And it's part of a broader international expansion. A relatively new CEO, Scott Boatwright. We had a chance to sit down with Scott just a few minutes ago. Here's what he had to say about the opening.
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Scott Boatwright0:36
We believe Mexico is a really important milestone for our great brand as we continue to lean into our global strategy. It's an important country for us. We recognize and admire the culinary heritage that is a part of the Mexican culture and we respect what we believe to be some of the best food in the world. What we're working to do is really tackle this emerging trend that we see around the globe. We also see it down in Mexico. This idea around fresh ingredients being prepared same day, freshly in restaurants. And we believe what we do and what we offer will really resonate with the Mexican community.
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Host1:16
I know you've had to have done a lot of market research and there's been a lot of talk about this idea of just how prolific not just Mexican taquerias are, but obviously all of the sort of unauthorized stands, anyone who's walked around Mexico City, Monterey, these big cities, they are everywhere. And I saw one stat that said that basically if you live in an urban area in Mexico, you don't have to go more than two or three hundred feet before you find a taco cart of some kind or another. Have you factored that into your equation that you're not just competing against established chains, but basically that ma and pa so to speak on the street selling food from their carts?
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Scott Boatwright1:53
Yeah, it's a great question and we have. And so we have partnered with what we believe to be a world-class partner in Alsea in Mexico who has brought other US brands into the country at a very successful pace of growth with brands like Starbucks and Cheesecake Factory and they've done an incredible job. So we believe the right partnership, strength of the partnership and the opportunity to go into Monterrey first and showcase the brand in a really unique way down in San Pedro is really step one. As we continue to move through Monterrey and open up and expand, we'll have our site set on Mexico City next. But we believe what we offer the idea of the best ingredients in the world prepared fresh in restaurant daily at an abundance and variety and speed it really which is unmatched at a really competitive price point will resonate well with the consumers in the market.
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Host2:46
Well, Scott, as you mentioned, you're starting in Monterey. You have plans to expand into Mexico City a little bit later in terms of timeline here. Talk to us about that cadence, why you chose to start in Monterey. What sort of boxes that region checked for you?
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Scott Boatwright3:02
Yeah, if you haven't been to Monterey, it's a really beautiful city. Really progressive city in Mexico. We love the trade area. We love the consumer profile in that market specifically. We plan to expand at a very measured pace to show that the brand can work in really any geography around the world. We think Monterey is a great starting point for us. We'll launch the brand there, move to a number of restaurants and then move to Mexico City where we think we can be hyper successful in a really large metro city that is probably one of the largest cities in the world.
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Host3:37
Well, as Roma sort of hinted at, there's a little bit of irony when it comes to the fact that Chipotle Mexican Grill is opening up, expanding into Mexico. And with that in mind, what changes do you have planned for Mexico? When you think about pricing, your menus, potentially your ingredients, what are you adapting to Mexico? What are you keeping the same?
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Scott Boatwright3:59
Yeah, so we plan to use the same menu we have here in the United States in Mexico. We'll locally source as much of the product we bring over the border today as it relates to avocados and tomatoes and peppers. We'll locally source those, but it'll be the same menu we've launched in Western Europe, the same menu we launched in the Middle East with our partner Alshaya. We have 15 restaurants open in that region today. And the brand really resonates well and we deliver on standard the same execution and same menu that we have in the United States.
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Host4:31
With regard to your partnership with Alsea, I mean this is a licensed model and I am curious that given that you pretty much own your stores here in the United States. How do you sort of ensure that you know quality control both on the ingredient side but also in terms of service is going to be up to the same standard that anyone would expect in any other location.
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Scott Boatwright4:54
Yeah, I think it's really about when you go into a new market is really assessing the partner quality. We believe in this idea of a slow measured approach to global expansion. We're not opening restaurants at a fast pace just for the sake of opening restaurants. We're going to protect the quality of our great brand through the strength of the partnership, management of the supply chain, and then oversight on how we deliver the experience each day to each community in which we serve. Whether that's in the Middle East, Latin America, and/or Southeast Asia, which will open up later this year.
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Host5:25
Well, I'm curious how far do you want to take this international expansion? Obviously, you're a relatively mature company, 30 plus years old, primarily here in the US. You have the partnership in the Middle East. You referenced a partnership in I believe in South Korea and now in Mexico, Latin America. Is this the longer term growth story for Chipotle under Scott Boatwright?
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Scott Boatwright5:48
It is. As we continue to expand in North America, we have a really strong business model here. We have an incredible team that is opening up restaurants at a record pace. We'll open up in North America alone this year north of 350 restaurants. So we feel like we have a really good foothold here and we understand how we deliver the model and how we deliver on consumer expectations and preferences in a really meaningful and unique way. What we endeavor to do now is as we build Chipotle to a global iconic brand is really showcase that the brand works in every region of the world. At the heart of the menu, it's really rice, beans, heavy protein, and heavy veg prepared fresh, which we know is not unique around the globe. And we're going to showcase in a very slow and measured way that we can be successful in every region of the world.
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Host6:34
Well, Scott, you mentioned heavy veg, and I want to apologize for this next question since we are talking about food, but we have to talk a little bit about cyclosporiasis. I hope I'm saying that right. It's that parasite that's been linked to severe diarrhea. We've seen outbreaks in more than 30 US states and they're usually linked to basil, cilantro, lettuce, things that I'm sure you use a lot at Chipotle. So, what have you seen? What do you know about this? Have you seen any notices from your suppliers or anything along those lines?
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Scott Boatwright7:05
Well, first and foremost, the care and safety of our team members and our guests is always our highest priority. We have gone through our supply chain ingredients with our partners to understand if any of our ingredients have been indicated in this cyclospora outbreak and they haven't to date. We don't expect that they will. But we'll continue to monitor our supply chain and be hypervigilant to ensure we are protecting both our team members and our guests in our fullest way.
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Host7:31
And our thanks again to Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright talking about the chain's expansion into Mexico.