After a rough couple of years filled with a series of PR nightmares, Chipotle announced on Wednesday that the fast-casual Mexican restaurant's CEO, Steve Ells, would be stepping down from his position.
Ells, who founded Chipotle back in 1993, will become executive chairman once the company is able to find his replacement.
"While we are continuing to make progress, it is clear that we need to move faster to make improvements," Ells said in a statement. "Bringing in a new CEO is the right thing to do for all our stakeholders. It will allow me to focus on my strengths, which include bringing innovation to the way we source and prepare our food."
Ells' departure comes after several hits Chipotle has taken over the past two years, most of which involved food safety concerns. In 2015, the restaurant was at the center of several lawsuits after a string of E. coli outbreaks in multiple states before being subpoenaed by a grand jury due to a norovirus outbreak in Boston that left 140 people sick the following year. The most recent scandal occurred this summer, after 135 customers fell ill after eating at a location in Virginia.
Following Ells' announcement on Wednesday, Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, called the news "the inevitable consequence of Chipotle's inability to get to grips with its various problems."
"Under his leadership, the chain has stumbled from one crisis to the next and has failed to reignite the growth that it once enjoyed," he said. "While a new CEO is not a silver bullet, the move gives Chipotle a chance to look again at its strategy and its approach."
(h/t USA Today)
Follow Delish on Instagram.
Download the Delish app.
