Stop your swining, people — Chipotle is loading back up on carnitas thanks to a little help from across the pond.
Before the end of the year, all Chipotle restaurants should once again be fully stocked with the chain’s popular braised pork filling as the company turns to British supplier Karro Food Group to help offset the pork shortage, said Chipotle founder and co-CEO Steve Ells in Tuesday’s quarterly earnings call.
The shortage began in January after a routine audit revealed that a previous supplier was not meeting the company’s standards, Ells said, which led to “rolling blackouts” of carnitas. The situation has been stabilized in Florida, Ells said, where more than 100 Chipotle restaurants now have pork from Karro, but several markets remain without swine.
“While it’s always been our preference to source meats domestically, the quantity of pork that meets our standards is simply not available right now from domestic suppliers,” Ells said Tuesday.
“During the coming months, we’ll be sourcing pork from Karro and returning carnitas to the restaurants around the country on a market-by-market basis until we’re fully supplied again, which we expect to happen before the end of the year,” he said.
During the call, Ells noted that while Karro meets the company’s animal welfare standards, it has a different antibiotic protocol that allows for pigs to be given the medications under veterinarian supervision. Antibiotics can’t be used to promote growth though, he said.
Chipotle on Tuesday reported second-quarter earnings of $140.2 million, or $4.45 a share, compared with $110.3 million, or $3.50 a share, a year ago.
The chain said a 14.1 percent uptick in second-quarter revenues, to $1.2 billion, was the result of sales in new restaurants. A 4.3 percent gain in comparable-store sales was largely driven by an increase in the average check and the benefits of higher menu prices nationwide, it said.
The decision to suspend a pork supplier was expected to affect customer perceptions and sales, Ells said.
“We’re extremely pleased from the reaction of our customers, many of whom applauded us for taking this principled stand,” he said. “As we continue to ramp up our pork supply, we expect to regain any lost sales tied to this outage.”
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