Chipotle Sales Plunge as Troubled Chain Gets Federal Subpoena
- Sales dropped as much as 37% in wake of foodborne illnesses
- Multiple outbreaks across country batter chain's reputation
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., struggling to rebound from multiple outbreaks of foodborne illness, reported a bigger plunge in fourth-quarter sales than the restaurant chain expected and said it got served with a subpoena in a federal criminal investigation.
Same-store sales -- a closely watched benchmark -- tumbled 14.6 percent in the period, the Denver-based company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The decline, Chipotle’s first quarterly drop as a public company, was previously projected to be as much as 11 percent. The grand jury subpoena, meanwhile, stemmed from a probe into a norovirus outbreak by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the central district of California, which is working with the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.