Much of Chipotle’s gains in recent years have centered on the foundational. The chain faced a fissure many chains did out of COVID—a split in the execution of its digital and in-store business. Chipotle welcomed such a flood of order-ahead transactions when lobbies closed that it emerged with a disjointed labor model; when dine-in returned, it was unbalanced on the front and back lines.

Publicly, Chipotle began to address the issue last year under the banner of “Project Square One.” It wasn’t a complex directive, although the execution was going to take some time. Chipotle ensured the proper number of employees were dedicated to each line so neither would suffer at the experience of the other. And then, it kept building. This past quarter, as the brand continued to stress throughput as a critical KPI on the road to $4 million AUVs, Chipotle recorded entrée throughput in the mid-20s range per peak 15-minute period, a visible improvement from low-20s in 2023. Additionally, restaurants with an expo in place—the crew member who helps expedite bagging and payment—were averaging five incremental entrees in their peak 15. 

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Alongside these building-block efforts, however, Chipotle kept hinting at flashier innovation in the pipeline designed to further boost employee efficiency.

Two of those—its automated digital makeline with Hyphen, and the avocado-prepping “Autocado”—are now officially being tested in live restaurants.

The “Augmented Makeline,” a cobotic makeline, deploys automated technology to build bowls and salads while Chipotle employees operate the top makeline to create burritos, tacos, quesadillas, and kid’s meals. About 65 percent of all Chipotle digital orders, the company said, are bowls or salads. The feature is running at Chipotle’s Corona del Mar, California, restaurant at 3050 East Coast Highway.

The Autocado was developed in tandem with Vebu. It cuts, cores, and peels avocados before they’re hand mashed to make guacamole. It’s currently operating at the brand’s Huntington Beach, California, unit at 20972 Magnolia St.

“These cobotic devices could help us build a stronger operational engine that delivers a great experience for our team members and our guests while maintaining Chipotle’s high culinary standards,” said Curt Garner, chief customer and technology officer, in a statement. “Optimizing our use of these systems and incorporating crew and customer feedback are the next steps in the stage-gate process before determining their broader pilot plans.”

The Autocado, on average, takes roughly 26 seconds to fully flesh out the fruit inside an avocado. Vebu and Chipotle worked with certified training managers from locations to analyze the company’s prep process and identify which tasks were swallowing the most time, as well as which were rated less favorably among crew members.

Autocado allows employees to switch focus to assisting on other food prep items and delivering guest-facing hospitality, Chipotle said. Autocado will cut avocados, remove skin, and separate fruit for them.

In stores across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, Chipotle is excepted to use about 5.18 million cases of avocados this year, or 129.5 million pounds of fruit.

The current iteration of Autocado features an updated design and size agnostic avocado process abilities. So the machine recognizes variability and automatically adjusts to accommodate the size of avocados being loaded.

Both Vebu and Hyphen were invested in by Chipotle through its $100 million Cultivate Next venture fund, which arrived in 2022. It was created to enable Chipotle to make early stage investments into strategically aligned companies and to nurture development in the trenches.

In other innovations, Chipotle is also working on implementing a new dual-sided grill that was tested in 10 restaurants over the past year. It cooks chicken and steak in roughly half the time it takes on Chipotle’s plancha, with consistent execution and the same sear and char.

Chipotle in Q2 posted same-store sales gains of 11.1 percent, well ahead of Wall Street’s consensus prediction of 9.2 percent. Also, 8.7 percent stemmed from transaction growth—the brand’s strongest traffic result in three years. The brand’s Q2 traffic was a sequential acceleration on both a one- and two-year basis.

Chipotle opened 52 company-run units in Q2, including 46 with the order-ahead pickup “Chipotlane,” as well as an international licensed restaurant. The company expects to bring 275–315 new stores to market in fiscal 2024, with 80 percent of those featuring a Chipotlane.

An international partnership with Alshaya Group brought Chipotle’s first licensed store to Kuwait, which has been open for a few months. The location was Chipotle’s first new country entry in 10 years and features kiosk and QR codes—that digital-centric design format was also a debut for the brand. A second Kuwait store is in the work alongside expansion into Dubai.

The brand is being led by a new CEO as well these days, with former head Brian Niccol now at Starbucks.

COO Scott Boatwright, a Chipotle vet since 2017, stepped into the interim post. CFO Jack Hartung, who recently announced his retirement from Chipotle in 2025, agreed to remain with the organization indefinitely as president of strategy, finance and supply chain. 

The company also accelerated the appointment of Adam Rymer to Chief Financial Officer, beginning October 1. Jamie McConnell, with the organization since 2018, will assume the role of Chief Accounting and Administrative Officer.

In addition to accelerating these executive appointments, Chipotle’s Board put retention plans in place for its executive leadership team to ensure continuity.