Chipotle Mexican Grill will be shuttering all its ShopHouse Asian Kitchen Locations.
According to a Thursday report from Nation’s Restaurant News, citing a Chipotle spokesman, Chipotle (CMG) plans to close all 15 ShopHouse restaurants effective March 17.
“We now have a deal in place to sell the ShopHouse leases and believe that is the right decision at this time,” spokesman Chris Arnold wrote in an email to Nation’s Restaurant News.
Still, ShopHouse employees shouldn’t fret. According to Arnold, they will be offered positions at Chipotle.
Back in 2011, Chipotle had opened the ShopHouse stores with the hopes of re-creating its success from its Mexican food chain. But last October, Chipotle executives noted that they would no longer invest in the ShopHouse brand because it was not gaining enough traction among customers.
The closures come as Chipotle tries to recover from a food safety crisis that started in fall 2015. Shares of the company are down 19% over the last 12 months,
