Chipotle shuts US stores for food safety meeting

New York

CHIPOTLE Mexican Grill closed its more than 2,000 restaurants for four hours on Monday to hold a "virtual" town hall meeting with its employees about steps it said it was taking to improve food safety and regain consumers' trust.

"People will come back," Steve Ells, the company's founder and co-chief executive, told more than 50,000 employees, who were connected to Chipotle's Denver headquarters via video. Emphasising his faith in that statement, he said that the company had no intention of slowing its growth this year.

The company allowed a wire-service reporter and a reporter from Fast Company into the hourlong meeting, and it tweeted some statements made by its executives and photos of them and employees. It also posted a video clip on Periscope of Mr Ells announcing a US$10 million programme to help small farmers who are Chipotle suppliers shoulder the costs of putting in place the company's new food safety system, which will require them to…