Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG +1.30%) has already mastered the art of selling food quickly. In fact, the restaurant chain's most efficient stores process over 350 transactions during the peak lunchtime hour, which works out to roughly one customer fed every 11 seconds. But amazingly, the company logged big gains on that metric this past quarter.
In the video below, Fool contributor Demitrios Kalogeropoulos discusses how Chipotle managed to hit a new record in terms of throughput, adding seven additional transactions to each of its lunch and dinnertime hours. The company did it through what it calls the "four pillars of throughput," which include a dedicated food expeditor and line monitor, in addition to stellar employee placement and ingredient layout.
Those pillars helped Chipotle log fantastic sales growth last quarter despite the extreme weather. But the best news for shareholders is that the new throughput record comes just as the company is entering its busiest season, which means that it has a good chance to book some major sales gains in the months ahead.
