New Entrants threat
As one of the largest segments in the U.S. restaurants industry, fast casual segment still has a large potential market. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG), being a leading player in this segment, already earned its foregoer advantages. Although the low capital requirement is one of attractive characteristics for new entrants of restaurants industry, the upscale formats required by fast casual restaurants often cause more investment and higher input costs. In some extent, it reduces the threat of new entrants because new comings can barely get relatively low costs easily. Many large national and regional chains are well connected with suppliers making direct negotiation possible. The cost advantage and the economics of scale reached by the large companies are significant obstacles for new entrants. Meanwhile, customers often count on familiar brands, if the new companies cannot achieve product differentiation, it is hard to attract loyal customers. Chipotle which has already captured
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For recent years, Chipotle has already raised prices for several times to make up the expected costs. The competitors who use conventional raised meat can even achieve half price of the same products of Chipotle. Cheaper prices do provide a great incentive for customers to purchase, however, the overall quality and taste of Chipotle still has competitive advantages. The idea of food with integrity differentiated Chipotle from other competitors. In the meantime, Chipotle already got the brand identification building up high switching costs. Therefore, the customers value more on quality would be a strong support for Chipotle’s business. Nevertheless, if the price is much higher than expected, even the loyal customers may change their preference. Hence, it is significant for Chipotle to balance the costs and food quality
External environment analysis plays an important role in shaping the overall industry. It helps keep the business ahead of its competitors and providing opportunities for implementing innovative ideas. Based on demographic, Chipotle focuses majority of its sales on “Millennials”, who are between the ages 18 and 24. “Serving high quality food with reasonable prices” and the ability to customize your meal with a variety of different options in a fast paced environment is something many consumers are attracted to especially the younger generation. Chipotle’s first restaurant was established in Colorado but now they have restaurants all throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and so much more, located primarily in urban areas.
New restaurant openings and comparable restaurant sales increases are important factors contributing to Chipotle’s increase in revenues in recent years.
In your industry, an entry barrier is to provide customers with high quality, fresh, homemade products. With the surge of the health craze, more people are likely to go to a Café type establishment, than go to a fast food restaurant. Health-conscious customers have come to know and expect this from any café/restaurant trying to enter this market.
The threat of new entry for the industry is low, as considered by high costs and intense price competition, which make the industry’s profit margins very low. In the United States the market is concentrated, where the 50 top firms, including: Wal-mart, Kroger, Safeway
Chipotle competitive advantage or Strengths has come from the ingredients that come from sustainable sources. According to the MarketLine article about Chipotle Mexican Grill SWOT analysis "Chipotle serves food using naturally raised meat (pork, beef and chicken) and dairy cattle... in 2014 the company served over 155 million pounds of naturally raised meat." Chipotle cares for their customers because they are not giving us food that has hormones and addictive substances. Their competitive advantage has changed the company culture and mission Statement nowadays they called it now food with integrity, the idea that their food is made with the respect for the animals and the
The fast food restaurant industry, which includes quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, is highly segmented with the top 50 companies accounting for only 25% of the industry’s sales. The $120 billion industry includes over 200,000 restaurants with 50% of those specializing in hamburger entrees. (hoovers.com 2008) The major competitors in the industry include McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, and KFC – Chick-fil-A’s major competitor in chicken sales. Chick-fil-A’s unique position in the market, specializing in chicken-based entrées, has lead to a competitive advantage which the company has been able to capitalize on. Recently, many competitors have added chicken entrees in order to compete in the market segment. Through marketing strategies and company initiatives, Chick-fil-A has tried to stay distant from competitors, offering a fresh alternative to the ordinary fast food restaurant.
As you know, Chipotle values our “food with integrity” promise and our customers respect that. However, the recent E Coli outbreak has caused Chipotle’s financial performance and reputation to suffer significantly and staying with our current business model is not our best option. Therefore, I recommend we rebrand and reposition Chipotle to ensure our long-term success.
In 1993, the first Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant (pronounced chi-POAT-lay) in Denver, Colorado was opened by CEO and founder, Steve Ellis after he received $165,000 in investments from a bank loan and his father (Pederson). Ellis, a Culinary Institute of America grad and former chef, started the company’s first restaurant to raise money needed to one day operate his own full-service restaurant (Berta). The company’s menu includes burritos, tacos, salads and burrito bowls (burritos without the tortilla) made with customers’ choices of pork, shredded beef, chicken, steak, beans, veggies, and burrito condiments (sour cream, salsa, etc.) (annual report). When Chipotle was first established, Ellis did not like the restaurant’s closed kitchen format because customers would often have to yell out their food orders to employees who cooked in the back of the building. This format did not accommodate customers’ needs for direct contact with employees and have full control over their own choice of ingredients within their meals as cooking staff could make a mistake on their orders because of mishearing. This compelled the founder to change the restaurant’s current format to an open kitchen design in which customers could actually see and choose ingredients that are fully prepared for ordering on a buffet assembly line while being able to directly speak face to face with employees (Pederson). A couple of years later, Chipotle opened a few more restaurants in the Denver area each generating $1 million in sales through word of mouth marketing and employing about 17 workers in each facility (Pederson). In 1998, McDonalds Corporation bought a minority stake in Chipotle as a way to boost their company sales since sales at their own rest...
Now we will look at some of Chipotle’s biggest competitors. Although there are many, we will be looking at the ones that are similar in genre of food and the fast and fresh concept. The main three competitors that have been identified are Moe’s Southwestern Grill, Qdoba and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop. All three competitors have their own unique competitive advantages and distinguish themselves separately amongst their
Similar to a fast food restaurant, but more upscale with a better dining experience. Ells idea of keeping the menu simple with limited items to prepare delicious food efficiently helped to create a kitchen different from other fast food chains. Food preparation areas in Chipotle’s kitchens are similar to those of fine dining restaurants. Menu items are prepared from scratch and with fresh ingredients. Even the meats are prepped with marinades. Creating such recipes is very labor intensive, but having limited items to prepare assists in keeping the cost down. The focus on menu integrity is one of Chipotle’s advantages and is a key element to their marketing strategy. One way Chipotle is able to control their ingredients and maintain menu integrity is by controlling their suppliers. After working with certain suppliers, they created a list of approved vendors for the individual restaurants to purchase from. One reason was to try and help control costs. Healthier food items cost more and Chipotle wanted to keep the cost of their meals low for their customers, so they built relationships with certain suppliers. Eventually, they began to use distribution centers across the country that only purchased ingredients from their approved suppliers (Gamble, Peteraf, & Thompson, Jr., 2015). This approach separates Chipotle from competitors like Taco Bell. Serving high quality food at a competitive price point against other fast food
Pace is owned by Campbell Soup Company, and Old El Paso is owned by General Mills, both huge food manufacturers. In order to avoid brand parity with these big brands, Hector’s company and product need unique characteristics to give patrons a reason to buy Hector’s products. Both, Old El Paso and Pace, are not authentic companies because huge corporations run them (General Mills is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Campbell’s is located in Camden, New Jersey). Hector needs to capitalize on the fact that his salsa is not only superior but also authentic Mexican food. Such a product doesn’t seem to exist on the market yet. Thus, Hector could operate in a niche market of customers buying high quality, authentic salsa. Also, both major competitors do not focus on salsa. Hector has a salsa with unique texture and taste. A product with different features helps to avoid brand parity with
McDonald's also focuses on the perception of value within it line of products and therefore takes care to price its menu items accordingly. Different products are priced differently depending on which target audience those items appeal to most. An extensive value menu is an essential part of any fast-food menu in recent years. The prices and products within the value menu can prove to be areas that will make or break a fast-food companies' year depending on the competitions value menus.
Customers buy when they feel it is necessary giving them the upper hand on the industry. Bargaining power of suppliers: In the quick- service restaurant, the suppliers vary. They really do not rely distributors as large restaurants do. Threat of new substitutes: The restaurant industry is segmented into many parts: full service restaurants ($120 billion); quick- service restaurants ($110 billion); away-from-home managed institutions, examples: food services for schools and hospitals ($21 billion); and other food industries ($106 billion). (Marshall Jones, 1999). Rivalry among competi...
By choosing to expand into markets later than other fast food restaurants Burger King hopes to avoid the problems of developing infrastructure and establishing a market base. For instance, by following McDonalds into Brazil, Burger King avoided the need to develop the infrastructure and mark...
A fast food restaurant will have to have a good pricing strategy in order to ensure that competition does not push the firm out of business. This will ensure the restaurant remains competitive. For effective management of cash inflows, the management will require to create an environment whereby each item has been priced conspicuously and reflecting the cost of bringing the same to the table as well as the profit margins targeted by the restaurant (Mark 1998).