Health concerns took a heavy toll on restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill’s (NYSE:CMG) first quarter.
The Denver-based restaurant group has been embroiled in a PR disaster after an outbreak of e.coli was linked to the chain last October, while Federal investigators are investigating a separate novovirus outbreak.
Like-for-like sales plunged by almost 30% in the three months to March while sales overall dropped 23% to US$835mln.
The group also posted its first ever loss as it introduced a raft of measures to make its restaurants the safest anywhere including food testing, faster food turnaround as well as promotions to encourage customers back.
The loss for the quarter was US$26.4 mln, or 88c a share, against US$122.6mln, or $3.88 a share.
Chipotle’s share price has fallen 30% over the past twelve months and the group is valued now at US$13.3bn.