Brian Niccol -- Barron's

The CEO's innovation machine has drawn customers, boosted profits, and ignited the shares. By Teresa Rivas

CEO Brian Niccol has cultivated Chipotle Mexican Grill's reputation for fresh, healthy fare, deftly moving the fast-casual restaurant chain beyond the food-contamination concerns that dogged it before his arrival in 2018. New store openings, a growing customer-loyalty program, and the timely launch of "Chipotlanes," or mobile-order pickup lanes, during the Covid-19 pandemic have led to a surge in profits and new highs for the stock.

Niccol is still focused on innovation, whether that means robot chefs or new menu items like chicken al pastor. High quality and efficient service have kept customers coming to Chipotle, even as other restaurants have struggled. Earnings per share nearly doubled in the company's latest fiscal year from two years earlier.

Chipotle thinks it could replicate its winning recipe overseas, where it has a relatively minimal presence, even as its investments in technology and a growing loyalty program stoke further domestic growth. "There's a lot of exciting things that are going to happen over the next 12 months, " Niccol says.

In early June, shareholders approved Chipotle's planned 50-to-1 stock split, one of the largest on record for an New York Stock Exchange-listed company. That could be another catalyst for the shares.

Write to Teresa Rivas at teresa.rivas@barrons.com

To subscribe to Barron's, visit http://www.barrons.com/subscribe

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 21, 2024 21:30 ET (01:30 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.