Chipotle’s “Cobot” is designed to work with human employees to increase employee efficiency and capacity for digital orders.
Steve Ells, the founder and ex-CEO of fast-casual food giant Chipotle, is planning a return to the industry early next year with a new startup that will serve meat-free sandwiches in restaurants run by robots and skeleton crews.
Ells, 58, is set to open a restaurant chain called Kernel, according to The Wall Street Journal, with the first location expected to open in Manhattan and at least a dozen more planned across New York in the next two years.
Each store will have three people working with robots to make products like meatless burgers, faux chicken sandwiches, salads, acai bowls and sides like pickles with wild rice. A typical meal consists of a veggie burger with salsa verde and pickled onions on a toasted brioche bun with a side of crispy potatoes.
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Steve Ells, the founder and former CEO of Chipotle, is opening a new chain of stores with a tech-heavy approach. (AP Newsroom / AP Newsroom)
The kernel is designed to use fewer resources and waste less, allowing restaurants to operate more efficiently.
The businessman put $10 million of his own money into seeding Kernel and raised another $36 million from investors. Ells has reportedly named Stephen Goldstein, a longtime food delivery industry executive, as president of the company.
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Ells explained to the Wall Street Journal how the process will work in his new restaurants, with the robots doing much of the heavy lifting.
A customer order is sent to the kitchen, where a robotic arm pushes pans loaded with food into the oven. A programmed toaster tosses a bun into the oven to warm up while conveyor belts move the dishes around the kitchen, the release said.
Workers then put the finishing touches on the dishes before packaging the food and placing it in a tray for the customer to pick up.
“We took a lot of human interaction out of the process and left just enough,” Ells said.
Fast-food companies have already toyed with the idea of introducing robots to cut costs in an industry facing higher food prices and rising minimum wages in several states. Some companies also say they are having a hard time recruiting staff.
A robot researching pizza baking in Germany. Kernel is expected to use similarly designed robots in its kitchens. (Photo by Ingo Wagner/picture Alliance via Getty Images / Getty Images)
For example, White Castle, a fast food chain, announced that it has partnered with Miso Robotics to test “Flippy 2,” an advanced kitchen robot, at various locations to improve food preparation and delivery. Chipotle has also tested the technology.
Meanwhile, in California, the minimum wage for fast food workers will rise from $15.50 an hour to $20 an hour starting April 1. An estimated 500,000 people work in California’s fast food industry. States like Nebraska, Delaware, Maryland and Hawaii are also expected to raise minimum wages next year.
However, Ells said Kernel will invest its efficiency savings compared to other fast-food chains into higher salaries and better benefits for its employees.
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Ells said the concept will also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He said his robotic, meat-free concept was inspired by a book by Bill Gates called “How to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe,” in which he advocates for new technological strategies to combat supposedly human-caused climate change.
Ells prepares food at Chipotle. He will return to the industry next year with Kernel. (AP Newsroom / AP Newsroom)
He said the upcoming Kernel menu will be based on legumes and vegetables rather than newer plant-based meat alternatives.
“It’s not about being beef. It’s not about being pork,” Ells said of his veggie burger.
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Ells’ decision could be crucial as sales of plant-based meat alternatives have declined and retail sales volumes of meat alternatives fell 23% in the year to October 8.
However, a recent study by Technavio, a market research firm, predicts that the plant-based burger patty market is expected to grow by $2.13 billion by 2026, a compound annual growth rate of 41.1%.