Industry Overview
National and regional fast-casual, quick service, and casual dining restaurant chains are a profitable industry and have maintained a steady growth since 2010. More specific, fast-casual food chains are in competition with each other and must continually try to differentiate its products from other restaurants in the industry.
While looking at the industry, there are a few factors that effect the decisions that many restaurants make. Sociocultural, environmental, and regulatory factors are a few of the most significant forces that make up the macro-environment of fast casual dining. More importantly, sociocultural norms such as healthy eating trends pose threats as well as opportunities for the restaurant business with vegetarian and organic production of food becoming more of customer interests.
Out of the five competitive pressures that firms in the industry must identify, rival firms and buyer power have the most significant effect on the fast casual industry with substitute products, such as other fast food restaurants, creating a moderate issue for the competition. Rival firms in
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Expanding into new markets such as Southeast Asian Kitchen gives Chipotle a way to increase market share of fast-casual dining outside of the original “Mexican” food market. More specifically, Chipotle seems to be a strength leader of its competition by at least 1.0 weighted score. Key success factors include quick/efficient production, geographic coverage, customer service, brand awareness/reputation, and cost containment. One reason for the leadership advantage is Chipotle’s quick and efficient production while maintaining high quality This is something that competitors have a hard time imitating. Its small lack in geographic coverage and market scope are still