Chipotle "has never been better positioned from a long-termdevelopment perspective," according to Jack Hartung, the company'sCFO and chief development officer. He said the company is"well-positioned to open 80-90 new restaurants this year,"including the 15 that it opened in the first quarter. The 15company-owned restaurants that it opened during the first quarterincluded 12 in existing markets and three in new markets.

New restaurants were one of the drivers of increased revenues,which climbed 40.2% to $187 million in the first quarter, ascomparable store sales climbed by 19.7%. Hartung commented that thecompany "benefited from a comparison to soft comparable restaurantsales in the first quarter of 2005," so future comp-store salescomparisons "will become increasingly more challenging eachquarter," he said.

Steve Ells, the chain's founder, chairman and CEO, credited moreefficient operations, IPO-related publicity and mild weather assome of the factors boosting first-quarter performance. MontyMoran, president and COO, pointed out that average sales perrestaurant surpassed $1.5 million for the first time during thefirst quarter.