New Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright reportedly wants to “modernize” the restaurant with robots working in the kitchen.
“It is my endeavor to really modernize the kitchen,” Boatwright told Yahoo Finance. “It’s been exactly the same for 30 years.”
Boatwright added that automating Chipotle’s kitchen will be crucial to expanding the company, which reportedly has a goal of hitting 7,000 locations from its current 3,600.
Last year, Chipotle and Hyphen, a company seeking to automate meal production in the foodservice industry, introduced a digital makeline, which involves a burrito bowl or salad traveling on a conveyor belt while the system automatically dispenses each ingredient.
The system is currently in the testing phase at Chipotle locations in Southern California.
Boatwright told Yahoo Finance that Chipotle fully intends “to leverage that automation” to complete online orders, which he noted make up 65 percent of bowl and salad orders.
Moreover, it only takes Hyphen’s Makeline system 30 to 60 seconds to complete a bowl, giving employees more time to work on burritos or in-store orders, he said.
In September, Chipotle began locally testing a robot known as Autocado, which peels and cores avocados for guacamole. Produce slicers are also reportedly being rolled out to ensure “consistent cut sizes.”
Chipotle has faced controversy as it has raised pricing amidst customer complaints about portion sizes. “We think about value very differently [than competitors] at Chipotle,” Boatwright said.
“I think about it as an equation, as benefit over price,” the CEO added. “As price moves up, benefit has to improve at the same pace to keep value the same for the consumer.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
