With Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) closing stores for lunch Monday to review its safety procedures, Moe’s Southwest Grill is going on the offensive with a media and marketing campaign directly targeting its rival. ‘This is our chance to step out and tell our story and, by comparison, show our points of differentiation with Chipotle,’ said Bruce Schroeder, president of Moe’s Southwest Grill. In a bid to review its new safety procedures and rally workers tasked with even more responsibilities in the wake of a massive E. coli outbreak, as well as several instances of norovirus, all 1,998 Chipotle locations in the U.S. will be closed today between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Moe’s has over 600 locations and was founded in 2000 in Atlanta, Georgia. Moe’s features fresh, handmade, customizable southwestern fast-casual food. Moe’s is best known for its burritos packed with a choice of more than 20 fresh ingredients. The chain is a part of Focus Brands, which is an affiliate of the Atlanta-based private equity firm, Roark Capital Group. Focus also currently owns Schlotzsky’s, Carvel, Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s. ‘Food safety is not a new issue in the industry,’ said Schroeder. ‘We can all lose a little sleep at night and you are never immune from some of that luck, but you can do everything under your control to make sure that doesn’t happen.’ Moe’s is rolling out its ‘Rebound Burrito’ during Chipotle’s downtime. It is also firing off a flurry of digital ads targeting consumers via social media with deals and offers. Schroeder said consumers are indeed using the savings from lower gas prices at the pump to spend more at his restaurants. And he said that the company’s use of pop-cultural references on its menus from movies like ‘Fletch’ and ‘Back to School’ is resonating across all generations, not just Gen Xers. As for the company’s growth plans, Schroeder said Moe’s has been ‘putting up back-to-back positive comps for a long time now’ so its franchisees are excited about growing the store base as well.
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