Chipotle May Be Getting Into the Burger Business

By Denisse Moreno, Epoch Times
March 31, 2016 Last Updated: April 10, 2016
Chipotle restaurant workers fill orders for customers. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Chipotle has another type of food on its mind besides burritos—burgers.

The food chain applied for a trademark for “Better Burger” earlier this month, according to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

“It’s a growth seed idea we are exploring,” said Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold in an email to Bloomberg.

“We have two non-Chipotle growth seeds open now—ShopHouse and Pizzeria Locale—and have noted before that the Chipotle model could be applied to a wide variety of foods,” he said. ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen opened in Washington in 2011 and has expanded to Los Angeles and Chicago. Pizzeria Locale is a fast-casual restaurant that started in Colorado.

Bloomberg said burgers could be potentially profitable for Chipotle, stating that beef prices are decreasing and that Americans are projected to eat more of the meat this year, according to the Department of Agriculture.

If Chipotle launches its burger venture, it’ll go head-to-head with chains like Shake Shack and Five Guys, which already offer similar food services.

CHICAGO, IL - JANUARY 28: In this photo illustration a cheeseburger and drink is served up at a Shake Shack restaurant on January 28, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. The burger chain, with currently has 63 locations, is expected to go public this week with an IPO priced between $17 to $19 a share. The company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SHAK. (Photo Illustration by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
A cheeseburger and drink is served up at a Shake Shack restaurant on January 28, 2015, in Chicago, Ill. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Chipotle has more than 2,000 stores nationwide. It gained popularity for its fresh ingredients and giving flexibility to customers with their food orders.

However, the Denver-based company is struggling to recover from a series of food scares like the norovirus, salmonella, and E. coli.

According to CNBC, Wedbush Securities downgraded the restaurant chain’s stock, claiming that the company will not recover the loss in sales until at least 2018.