Chipotle reports double-digit revenue growth in Q2

Chipotle posted strong revenue growth during Q2.

The company saw 13.6% year over year growth, and in-restaurant sales jumped 15.8%. Comparable in-store restaurant sales went up 7.4%. Digital sales, a category including purchases from the chain’s app and website, brought in 38% of food and beverage receipts.

Chipotle expects full-year growth for same-store sales to be in the “mid to high-single digit range.”

The chain said it opened 47 new locations during Q2, 40 of them with a Chipotlane drive-thru. Earlier this month, Chipotle said it would start opening restaurants in the Middle East next year.

“Our investment in our employees, technology, and innovation in our restaurants along with expanding access and convenience in North America and laying the groundwork for international growth, set us up for long term success," Brian Niccol, chairman and CEO of Chipotle, said in the company’s earnings report.

Despite its growth, the company faced a recent leadership challenge: Its VP of digital marketing and off-premise, Tressie Lieberman, recently left to become CMO of Yahoo.

The brand has debuted a few socially driven campaigns this year, such as its National Burrito Day activation, which involved giving Twitter users text codes to win one of 10,000 free burritos. According to Marketing Dive, the activation resulted in the brand’s “second largest digital sales day of all time and its highest one-day volume on social media.”

Earlier this year, the brand capitalized on a viral TikTok by adding the Fajita Quesadilla to its digital menu after two creators made the item popular.

“TikTok has not only changed the way we communicate with Gen Z, but it’s proven it can identify areas of opportunity within our business,” Chipotle CMO Chris Brandt said at the time.