Chipotle made slight progress during the second quarter in its struggle to win back customers after last year’s food safety crises, stemming the year-over-year decline in same-store sales at 23.6% on a 19.3% drop in customer counts.
For the first quarter of 2016, the company posted a 29.7% drop in same-store sales and a 21.1% fall in transactions.
Revenues for the quarter ended June 30 decreased 16.6% to just under $1 billion, and the company swung back into profitability, posting a net income of $25.6 million. The figure marks an 82% decline from the profit for the same period of the prior year. During the first quarter of this year, Chipotle posted its first-ever loss as a public company, at $26.4 million.
“We returned to profitability, and saw a modest improvement in comp sales trends in the second quarter,” said founder and co-CEO Steve Ells. “Our most recent marketing efforts, led by our Chiptopia frequency program, are off to a nice start in the third quarter, as customers are embracing the program and nearly 30% of all transactions are engaged in Chiptopia.”
He cited the Chiptopia program, which rewards customers for their frequency of visits rather than how much they spend, as an important remedy for the remainder of the summer.
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