A Chipotle Burrito Is Going To Cost You More Now At Certain Locations

Burritos as well as other items on Chipotle’s menu will be costing consumers slightly more now at certain locations.

The company just raised the prices at about 440 of its locations, making it the first major price increase sine the E. coli outbreaks in late 2015.

According to spokesman Chris Arnold, in an effort to help profits, the restaurant chain boosted its prices by about 5% on average on April 11th.

“The increase is our first in about three years, and was implemented to help offset labor and food inflation,” Arnold said. “Even with the new prices, our pricing remains very competitive, particularly if you factor in our ingredient quality.”

The chain has 2,200 Chipotle locations and there are no plans for a price increase at all of them.

You can’t blame the company for trying to find a way to win back profits. Chipotle used to be a Wall Street darling before an E. coli outbreak made consumers want to stay way from the chain.

For 2017 the company is expecting same-store sales to be in the high-single digit range.

This is compared to same-stores sales at Chipotle’s established restaurants falling 4.8 percent during the fourth quarter.

According to Mark Kalinowski, an analyst at Nomura-Instinet, Wall Street expects Chipotle to post a same-store sales increase of about 15.1 percent in the first-quarter.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG ) and have not been compensated for this article.