Chipotle meeting

Chipotle meeting

YOUNGSTOWN

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. will close all of its U.S. stores for part of the day Feb. 8 while its employees attend a national team meeting, a company spokesman said Friday.

The meeting is to discuss food-safety changes and allow employees to ask questions.

Stores will open at 3 p.m. local time that day, he said. As of September, Chipotle has 1,906 restaurants worldwide, 1,895 of which are in the U.S.

The Denver-based burrito chain has struggled to attract customers after E. coli outbreaks were linked to the company’s restaurants. Chipotle’s December sales were down 30 percent, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Haier Group to buy GE appliance unit

beijing

Haier Group, the world’s biggest home-appliance maker, is buying General Electric Co.’s appliance business for $5.4 billion to expand its U.S. and global presence.

The acquisition announced Friday comes as Haier tries to transform itself into a premium brand. GE is shifting emphasis from traditional businesses such as appliances, in which it has been a prominent presence for more than a century, to higher-technology areas such as medical equipment and clean energy.

Auto industry, US make deal on safety

DETROIT

After two tumultuous years of recalls, fines and friction, the government and the auto industry struck a peace treaty of sorts by agreeing to cooperate on safety issues in the future.

A group of 17 automakers and the Department of Transportation agreed Friday to a set of “proactive safety principles” and vowed to work together to quickly spot and resolve problems before they endanger the public.

Officials said most details are still to be worked out. But the pact marks a change in the relationship between the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the auto industry after revelations that serious defects went undisclosed to the public for years, and as automakers rapidly develop technologies that one day could lead to driverless cars.

“Don’t underestimate what happened today,” said Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, whose company was fined millions by NHTSA last year for not reporting safety defects fast enough and failing to follow through on recalls. “It was the approach that the secretary and the administration took. I think you’ll see a huge change.”

The pact was announced Friday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx with Marchionne, GM CEO Mary Barra and several other top industry officials in attendance.

Disappointing sales in US in Nov., Dec.

NEW YORK

Holiday shoppers flocked online during the critical holiday shopping season, but overall sales in November and December were disappointing.

Sales rose 3 percent to about $626.14 billion, according to The National Retail Federation. That’s below the forecast for a 3.7 percent gain the group had expected.

Staff/wire reports