Chipotle Mexican Grill operates a fast-casual restaurant chain serving burritos, bowls and tacos built around a customizable, assembly-line ordering format where customers choose their own ingredients. The company has emphasized using fresh, minimally processed ingredients as a core part of its brand positioning, differentiating itself from traditional fast food chains built around frozen or highly processed ingredients. Chipotle owns and operates nearly all of its restaurants directly rather than franchising to independent operators, giving it more direct control over food quality, service standards and pricing than chains that rely heavily on franchisees. The company's growth has come both from opening new restaurant locations and from same-store sales growth driven by menu innovation, digital ordering and loyalty program engagement with existing customers.