00:00Chipotle, the fast casual restaurant that took its Mexican inspired food and spread it to 4,000 locations across the
00:07U.S. is now headed to the source, opening its first location south of the border, bringing its burritos and
00:14bowls to the country whose ancestral people domesticated corn, turned them into tortillas and began filling them with meat and
00:22mashed up avocados thousands and thousands of years ago.
00:26It's an important country for us. We recognize and admire the culinary heritage that is a part of the Mexican
00:34culture. And we respect what we believe to be some of the best food in the world.
00:39Selling recreations of indigenous food to the descendants of those indigenous people? Well, it's fraught with pitfalls, questions of authenticity
00:48and appropriation.
00:50And there's the unique competition. It's not just restaurant chains that Chipotle is competing with.
00:56Mexico is a country with at least 150,000 registered independent taquerias and a million more informal street side taco
01:06stands.
01:06By one estimate, 95% of residents in major Mexico urban centers have a taco stand within 400 meters of
01:16their home.
01:16We believe what we offer, the idea of, you know, the best ingredients in the world prepared fresh in restaurant
01:22daily at an abundance and variety and speed, really, which is unmatched at a really competitive price point will resonate
01:30well with the consumers in the market.
01:31It's a move that's humbled U.S. restaurant chains before. In the 90s and early 2000s, Taco Bell's expansion, it
01:39struggled to resonate with locals there in Mexico.
01:43Domino's, it stumbled in selling pizza to the Italians. Starbucks struggled to crack the entrenched coffee culture in Australia.
01:51Budweiser bungled efforts to win over beer loving Germans and P.F. Chang's efforts to scale up in China.
01:58Well, it didn't scale at all at the heart of the menu. It's really rice, beans, heavy protein and heavy
02:04veg prepared fresh, which we know is not unique around the globe.
02:08And we're going to we're going to showcase in a very slow and measured way that we can be successful
02:13in every region of the world.
02:14The burrito chain is teaming up with a local operator named Alcea, a homegrown multi-brand restaurant operator that has
02:22had success in helping Chili's, Starbucks and Domino's expand across Latin America.
02:29Chipotle is betting Alcea's deep roots and understanding of the Mexican market will give it an edge in connecting with
02:35the local population.
02:36We believe in this idea of a slow measured approach to global expansion.
02:40We're not opening restaurants at a fast pace just for the for the sake of opening restaurants.
02:46We're going to protect the quality of our great brand through the strength of the partnership, management of the supply
02:52chain and then oversight on how we deliver the experience each day to each community in which we serve.
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