Claire Helmken Ms. Heeg Introduction to Business, Block 1 29 September 2014 Steve Ells Have you ever heard of a restaurant that is able to open over 1500 stores in less than 20 years, all while keeping the integrity and quality of the food like they did in their first store? Most restaurants that go public have to cut corners on the quality of their food products, and the matter in which they raise their animals and crops. To increase profits, chain food corporations cut corners by using meat fillers and partial cuts of meat in their products, they mass produce products in factories to be frozen then heated up later in the restaurants. However, one chain outshines …show more content…
He is the founder, CEO, and executive chairman of Chipotle. Steve was born on September 12, 1965 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated from Boulder Highschool and got his B.A from the University of Colorado in Boulder. He then went on to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America. He still lives in Colorado today. After Steve graduated from culinary school, he became Sous Chef at the Stars Restaurant in San Francisco. He became inspired by watching the assembly lines that fed mass crowds of people in the big city. Then Steve moved back to Boulder, CO, and decided to become an entrepreneur. He had the idea to open up a Mexican Grill in his home town. Steve liked the idea of an assembly crew to build a custom made burrito for the customers. His dad invested $85,000 dollars, and the first store was opened on July 13, 1993. Steve Ells' intentions after college were to just become a chef. He is an artist, not a businessman, and had never take many business or marketing classes in college. When he opened up Chipotle, he planned on only having one store. The first little store he had was a little, renovated, 850 sq ft shop about a block from a collage campus. Steve barely had money for decorations, and simply decorated the store with metal, stainless steel, plywood, and simple light fixtures. All the stores are currently designed similar to the first …show more content…
Pretty soon, 14 more stores opened up throughout Colorado with the help of his dad and other investors. His dad invested 1.5 million dollars, and he raised 1.8 million more on his own. Customers liked the quick assembly line and the naturally grown food. McDonald's Corporation took notice of this growth and invested 360 million dollars into Chipotle in 1998. With this kind of money, he opened up 500 more stores. Chipotle was becoming a household name. In 2006 Chipotle went public with their stock, and their stock values went up 100% in one