Chipotle launches high-protein menu in bid to reverse sales slump after brutal 2025

Chipotle's latest paper point is elemental — a chickenhearted bowl, but clasp the rice, lettuce, tomato, and everything else.

On Thursday, the institution announced plans for a caller high-protein menu, which volition motorboat connected Dec. 23 and diagnostic 2 high-protein bowls, a salad, a burrito, and an adobo chickenhearted taco.

The institution volition besides connection its first-ever "snack," which is what it's calling the caller enactment for a four-ounce cupful of adobo chickenhearted that customers tin acquisition connected its ain oregon adhd connected to an order. The institution said the mean terms of a chickenhearted cupful volition beryllium $3.82 nationwide. The cupful volition besides beryllium disposable successful steak.

Items connected the company's caller paper scope betwixt 15 and 81 grams of macromolecule per item.

The high-protein rollout follows accelerated casual adjacent Sweetgreen's (SG) determination to motorboat its ain suite of protein-focused items, which includes a 106-gram macromolecule bowl. Chipotle said it's looking to conscionable the needs of its consumers, with 70% of Americans present saying they are prioritizing macromolecule intake.

The motorboat comes astatine the extremity of what has been a challenging twelvemonth astatine the chain, with income flagging and the company's banal disconnected astir 40% successful 2025.

Same-store income fell 0.4% successful the archetypal 4th of the twelvemonth and were followed by a 4% diminution successful Q2. In its latest quarter, Chipotle saw same-store income emergence 0.3%, though this summation was a effect of higher prices, arsenic transactions really declined during the quarter.

CEO Scott Boatwright said successful the company's 3rd 4th net merchandise that the concatenation continues to spot "persistent macroeconomic pressures."

The enforcement expanded connected this thought connected the company's net call, noting the pullback successful each income cohorts seen earlier this twelvemonth had widened, "with low- to middle-income guests further reducing frequency." Households that marque $100,000 oregon little marque up astir 40% of its full sales.

He aboriginal added that Chipotle expects the archetypal 4th of 2026 to beryllium the company's "toughest" for middle- and low-income consumers.

"A peculiarly challenged cohort is the 25-to-35-year-old property group," Boatwright said. "This radical is facing respective headwinds, including unemployment, accrued pupil indebtedness repayment, and slower existent wage growth."

This sentiment was echoed by different accelerated casual chains successful the fall.

"We've seen the macroeconomic headwinds truly interaction that 25-to-35-year-old impermanent segment, wherever [in 2024] ... they had a batch of tailwinds," Cava (CAVA) CEO Brett Schulman told Yahoo Finance. "Their frequence to existing restaurants has moderated arsenic they felt outgo pressures from astir them."