Chipotle Mexican Grill

The Company categorizes its restaurants as end-caps (at the end of a line of retail outlets), in-lines (in a line of retail outlets), free-standing or other. Of its restaurants in operation as of December 31, 2016, the Company had 1,396 end-cap locations, 370 free-standing units, 346 in-line locations and 138 other locations.

With only a few exceptions, all Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants are company owned. While a few franchises were sold in the early days, since Chipotle’s success the franchising plan has been scrapped in favor of complete corporate ownership and control.

Chipotle may seem huge right now, but it has a lot of expanding to do if it wants to catch up with the biggest players in the fast food business. The chain’s 2,000+ restaurants are nothing compared to true mega-chains, like McDonald’s, which has more than 34,000 restaurants worldwide, or Starbucks and its 20,600-plus shops. Today, Chipotle has only 17 restaurants overseas, with plans to open more company-owned stores internationally in the coming year. Chipotle may one day have thousands of stores around the world, but if it does, the chain wants to do it without relying on franchisees.