Chipotle might be opening up a burger chain

Chipotle could be opening up a new chain.

(Image credit: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. may soon be adding hamburgers to its repertoire. The Denver-based chain filed a trademark application for "Better Burger" earlier this month, indicating that the company might still be going ahead with its burger-making plans announced last July despite its ongoing recovery from a food-safety crisis.

"It's a growth seed idea we are exploring," Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told Bloomberg. “We have two non-Chipotle growth seeds open now — ShopHouse [Southeast Asian Kitchen] and Pizzeria Locale — and have noted before that the Chipotle model could be applied to a wide variety of foods." Both Chipotle's pizza and Southeast Asian cuisine chains only have a few locations at this point, but The Wall Street Journal reports that they are expanding. Burgers, similarly, have the potential to be a profitable venture for Chipotle as the category grows and beef prices continue to drop, Bloomberg reports.

Profitability is something Chipotle needs to see right now, too. Since the chains suffered a series of E. coli and norovirus outbreaks last year that prompted an investigation by the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention, its stocks have taken a hit. Same-store sales fell another 26 percent in February and the company has told shareholders it's expecting to report a sales loss in this year's first quarter.