Chipotle (CMG) stock fell as much as 8% in pre-market trading after the company announced the departure of its CEO, Brian Niccol, who will take the same role at Starbucks (SBUX) starting next month.

Niccol has been the CEO of Chipotle since 2018. Scott Boatwright, its COO, will serve as the company's interim CEO.

Niccol has been integral to Chipotle's rebound over the last several years, as the company recovered from an E. coli crisis that began in 2015 and weighed on shares for years.

In the year before Niccol joined the company, Chipotle's annual revenues were around $4.5 billion; by 2023, revenue had more than doubled, totaling $9.9 billion for the year. In the past five years, the stock has rallied more than 240% against an 85% gain for the S&P 500.

Amid the executive shakeup, Chipotle CFO Jack Hartung, who had announced plans to retire in 2025, has agreed to remain with Chiptole "indefinitely" as a president of strategy, finance, and supply chain.

"Thanks to our robust talent planning process, we are well-prepared for events like this due to the deep bench within the organization," said Scott Maw, chairman of Chipotle's board of directors.

Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X @_joshschafer.

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