Food Crisis Hits Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) Shares Dive

$CMG

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE:CMG) suffered its worst stock decline in 7 months after a suspected norovirus outbreak at 1 of its restaurants threatens reignite the company’s food-safety crisis.

The chain closed a location in Sterling, Virginia, Monday after a “small number” of illnesses were reported, according to Jim Marsden, Chipotle’s executive director of food safety.

The company is working with health authorities to determine the cause of the outbreak, he said.

The move follows a series of foodborne-illness outbreaks in Y 2015 that sent Chipotle’s sales and stock price plunging. Though norovirus cases are not rare Chipotle’s past problems have put health incidents at the chain under intense scrutiny.

Chipotle’s comeback has faced obstacles.

This Spring, a malware attack struck its point-of-sale technology. The Denver-based company said in May that it had successfully removed the malicious code from its systems.

Trying to restore its image in Y 2016, Chipotle hired Mr. Marsden to oversee its food-safety efforts. The former professor in Kansas State University’s Animal Science and Industry Department has worked to revamp procedures at the Mexican-food chain.

“We take every report of illness seriously,” Mr. Marsden said Tuesday. “In accordance with our established protocols, our team is working to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, including voluntarily closing the restaurant yesterday to conduct a complete sanitation.”

That latest incident could spur investors to call for a COO (chief operating officer) someone who could better monitor the company’s more than 2,000 restaurants.

Stay tuned…

  Chipolte, closed, CMG, crisis, food, norovirus, restaurant, safety, water

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Paul Ebeling

Paul A. Ebeling, polymath, excels in diverse fields of knowledge. Pattern Recognition Analyst in Equities, Commodities and Foreign Exchange and author of “The Red Roadmaster’s Technical Report” on the US Major Market Indices™, a highly regarded, weekly financial market letter, he is also a philosopher, issuing insights on a wide range of subjects to a following of over 250,000 cohorts. An international audience of opinion makers, business leaders, and global organizations recognizes Ebeling as an expert.

Latest posts by Paul Ebeling (see all)

• The Street’s Key Stock Analysts Research Reports - October 23, 2019
• Asia: Gold, Crude Oil, Stocks, Commodities and Currency Pairs - October 23, 2019
• F1: On and Off the Track Business into the End of This Season - October 23, 2019