Chipotle Mexican Grill has opened a second corporate office, this one in Columbus, Ohio, to house about 400 employees across a range of departments, the fast-casual burrito chain announced Monday.
The 130,000-square-foot restaurant support center, which took two years to build, will give Chipotle more room for growth as it seeks to expand from a 3,000-unit brand to a 7,000-unit one.
Chipotle remains headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif.
The chain’s employees are returning to the office companywide Tuesday, with “robust protocols” for health and safety, the chain said in a statement.
“The key ingredients to our success—creativity, camaraderie and inclusiveness—can best be achieved to their full potential when we’re together in one innovative space,” Marissa Andrada, chief diversity, inclusion and people officer, said in a statement. “Columbus houses world-class diverse talent from all backgrounds and functions and we’re excited to bring more opportunities for advancement to the community …”
The new office will have workers from finance, development, food safety, legal, facilities, operations, and guest and employee relations, among others.
It offers “world-class workspaces that are modern and bright, designed for the collaboration and innovation that embodies Chipotle’s culture and brand,” the company said.
The space was designed by a female-owned firm and used a female-owned tech company to install cables throughout the building. About a quarter of the subcontracted work was awarded to businesses owned by underrepresented groups, the chain said.
In 2018, Chipotle moved its longtime headquarters from Denver to Southern California, following the appointment of former Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol as head of the company.
At that time, Chipotle had a shared services center in Columbus with 100 employees. That office grew to more than 250 workers after the relocation.
A couple of weeks ago, Chipotle upped its growth goals, saying it has runway to open 7,000 North American restaurants, up from 6,000 as previously stated.
The burrito brand said the increase is possible thanks to a largely new strategy focused on small- to mid-sized cities. Chipotle said it is starting to see strong returns from restaurants in places with populations between 20,000 and 100,00 people, driven in large part by the strength of its order-ahead Chipotlanes.
Chipotle has previously reported it has a real estate pipeline to allow for 8%-to-10%-unit growth per year.
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