KEY OC DATE: 2018—relocates Denver HQ to Newport Beach
LEGACY LEADERSHIP: Founder Steve Ells hired Brian Niccol as CEO in 2018. The former Taco Bell chief executive relocated the Denver chain to OC and orchestrated a massive turnaround at the company which had struggled following a series of food-safety scandals. Niccol overhauled food-prep and safety protocols to regain customer trust. Niccol, who left the chain in 2024, also pushed the brand to go “digital-first” and was well versed in mobile ordering before the industry’s digital shift during the pandemic. He introduced Chipotlanes in 2019—dedicated drive-through lanes for mobile order pickup, a digital ordering system that has been copied by other fast-casual chains including Shake Shack and Sweetgreen.
HQ: Newport Beach
OC SIGNIFICANCE: As of June, Chipotle is the third most valuable publicly traded restaurant company in the U.S. with a market cap of $42B—two spots behind the $198B valued McDonald’s at No. 1.
DEFINING MOMENT: Niccol based the company’s HQ in a high-rise on Newport Center Drive. A couple of years later, the chain opened the Chipotle Cultivate Center, a 22,000-square-foot corporate innovation hub and test kitchen in Irvine. Located in the UCI Research Park, it serves as the incubator where the company prototypes new menu items, tests robotics and develops automated makelines.
BY THE NUMBERS: Annual sales are nearly $12B, and Chipotle currently operates over 4,000 restaurants worldwide with a long-term target of 7,000-plus. Employs over 130K people.
QUOTABLE: “We really wanted to be where the food culture that we wanted to create exists, and then also wanted to have access to the technology talent that we knew we would need to really transform the business.” —Brian Niccol told the Business Journal on the move to OC
FUN FACT: McDonald’s Corp. was a major investor in Chipotle from 1998 to 2006.
