All of the 1,895 Chipotle Mexican Grill located in U.S. will be close for a half-day on Feb. 8 as they will hold a national team meeting -- following successive reports of food poisoning. Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold confirmed it to News-Journal.
Arnold said that part of the meeting is to discuss food-safety changes that the company plans to implement. The assembly will also allow employees to ask questions that are related to the new food-safety regulations. Most importantly, the spokesman said the meeting will give them time to thank their national team for all the dedication and hard work they have shown during the difficult time.
Hence, instead of opening at 10 a.m., the restaurants will resume their operation at 3 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 8. And it is expected that the whole staff will be equipped with new food-safety guidelines.
For the past months, the Denver-based burrito eatery has been struggling to boost their sales after E. coli outbreaks were linked to the restaurant. In fact, according to the company's recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, their sales on the month of December dropped to 30 percent.
Chipotle's difficulty started when five of their customers reported that they fell ill after dining at their Seattle branch, then public health officials determined it was E. coli. Then in October, 53 people across nine states became ill after eating at the eatery, according to another report by the Monitor.
In addition, in December, 140 diners from Boston were diagnosed with norovirus after eating at Chipotle. Experts then explained that the most cause of the illness was caused by sick employees, who didn't follow restaurant's standard procedure.
As of the moment, Chipotle has already opened 1,906 branches worldwide and at least 9 lawsuits have been filed by the customers against the eatery. But despite all these unfortunate series, Chipotle CEO Steve Ells said with their new marketing campaign, they are confident to say that all of their restaurants are now "safer than ever."
