C-suite management meetings takeaways; Outperform

Research evidence excerpt

C-suite management meetings takeaways; Outperform

May 11, 2026

Key points

Reasons for a sales ramp

The company shared a view that it is pursuing a variety of sales drivers while boosting Chipotle is prioritizing

fundamental demand through underpricing inflation, boosting throughput, and focusing on transaction growth over

hospitality. Management is prioritizing transaction growth over margin in 2026 and is willing to margin in 2026, and

reinvest high-efficiency equipment package (HEEP) labor savings back into peak-period service. myriad initiatives should

Ultimately, this combination, along with other initiatives, should bolster traffic growth while build through 2027

supporting improved pricing power into 2027.

SSS driving initiatives that we expect to build through 2026 and 2027 include:

◼ Underpricing inflation through 2026: The company has increased price only by about 1%

over the last five quarters. We anticipate pricing ramping up to 3% by 4Q, which should be

relatively in line with inflation by that time. See more on this below.

◼ HEEP boost to SSS: The company is reinvesting the labor productivity benefit from new

kitchen equipment back into the guest experience (by not reducing labor). This is resulting

in 2-4pp outperformance of SSS in the 600 Chipotle restaurants (14% of locations) that have

received the HEEP package (vs. broader system SSS growth) with the lift visible ~60 days

after installation. We anticipate this benefit ramping through 2026-1H28 with 2000 stores

(45% of units) getting the equipment by year-end 2026 and the rest of units getting by year

end 2027. The 3–4 hours per day saved from the new equipment is expected to be

reinvested back into peak-period coverage and hospitality. We model HEEP contribution