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.