Brian Niccol is making some big changes at Starbucks. It’s hardly his first time attempting a turnaround at a fast-food chain.
Niccol has two decades of experience in the restaurant industry, from Pizza Hut to Chipotle. He’s honed a specialty in that time as someone who can take a struggling chain and make it successful.
Here’s how Niccol became one of the most notable leaders in the restaurant industry.
Niccol got his start at Procter & Gamble
After graduating from Miami University in Ohio in 1996, Niccol took a job at consumer products manufacturer Procter & Gamble.
One of his early successes was a marketing campaign for Scope mouthwash that allowed customers to send animated kisses to each other through email platform Hotmail, Niccol told the Los Angeles Times in 2015.
While mouthwash itself wasn’t new or innovative, Niccol said the campaign used a then-new technology to keep the brand relevant. “What I’ve always seen is the brands that have a youthful mindset, a youthful vigor, they have a great value proposition,” he told the Times.
While working at Procter & Gamble, Niccol earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Niccol’s first restaurant role was at Taco Bell’s parent
Niccol joined Yum! Brands, the company that owns KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, in 2005. His first roles were at Pizza Hut. In 2011, he became CEO at Taco Bell.
Under Niccol, Taco Bell pushed back on perceptions of its food quality. In 2011, a lawsuit alleged that Taco Bell’s beef used too many fillers. The lawsuit was dismissed, but the impact weighed down Taco Bell’s results in the quarters afterward, executives said at the time.
Niccol oversaw a various changes, from the chain’s new “Live Más” slogan to a new breakfast menu. Taco Bell also launched the Doritos Locos Taco, which uses a shell coated in the chip’s flavored coating, and started serving boozy Baja Blasts and other alcohol at Taco Bell Cantina locations.
The changes rejuvenated sales. By the time Niccol moved on to this next job in 2018, one analyst called his tenure as CEO a “brand revitalization” for Taco Bell.
Niccol oversaw a successful turnaround at Chipotle
In late 2017, Niccol learned that Chipotle founder and CEO Steve Ells planned to step down as soon as the Mexican grill chain could find his replacement.
“When I saw the news, I thought, ‘That’s interesting,’” Niccol told the Harvard Business Review in 2021. In early 2018, he became Chipotle’s new CEO and a director.
At the time, the Mexican grill chain was struggling. A few years earlier, Chipotle faced a months-long E. coli outbreak at its restaurants that ultimately sickened over 1,000 people. Like the lawsuit over Taco Bell’s meat, the fallout was hurting the brand’s sales for longer than executives had expected.
Chipotle made some big changes once Niccol became CEO. He moved the company’s headquarters to Orange County, California, from Colorado. Chipotle also beefed up food safety procedures and training for employees, steps Niccol touted in early 2020 as COVID-19 spread around the world and customers became more conscious of their health.
And in a few years, Chipotle went from having almost no digital presence to adding dedicated drive-thru lanes, called “Chipotlanes,” for picking up online orders at thousands of stores.
The changes worked. Chipotle’s stock was trading around $6 a share when Niccol took over as CEO in March 2018. By the time he left for Starbucks last year, shares of Chipotle stood around $56 each.
Niccol’s work at Chipotle helped solidify his status as an executive who could improve restaurants’ financial performance.
“They might’ve been struggling at the time, but boy, at the core, I just believed there was a reason why they should succeed,” Niccol said at the time.
Even Niccol’s current Starbucks biography mentions his time at Chipotle.
“He more than doubled the business by establishing Chipotle as a culinary leader, pioneering digital innovation, introducing exciting new menu offerings, and expanding internationally,” the biography reads.
Niccol faces his biggest test yet at Starbucks
Niccol joined the coffee chain as CEO in September.
Even before he started, industry analysts said that Niccol’s accomplishments at Chipotle and Yum! were strong credentials to tackle Starbucks’ challenges, including slumping quarterly sales and operational challenges such as long wait times.
Still, Starbucks is larger and more complex than Chipotle, some analysts pointed out. Chipotle had about 3,700 locations in its mostly US-based store network at the end of 2024. Starbucks, meanwhile, had about 40,000 stores as of September, according to its latest annual filing with the SEC. Just over half of those were outside North America.
While he’s just six months into the job, Niccol has already overseen a lot of changes at Starbucks.
The coffee chain laid off about 1,100 corporate employees last month, a move that Niccol said would allow Starbucks to “operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration.”
Many Starbucks customers have also noticed changes at their local stores, from the return of self-service bars for milk and sugar to the requirement that patrons make a purchase to hang out there.
Changes to Starbucks’ mobile ordering system, including timed pick-up slots, could also be coming, Niccol has said.
The goal is to win customers back and restore Starbucks’ traditional role as a “third place” to spend time besides work and home, Niccol has said.
“Our stores will be inviting places to linger, with comfortable seating, thoughtful design, and a clear distinction between ‘to-go’ and ‘for-here’ service,” he wrote in his first public message as CEO in September.
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