Starbucks's New CEO Used to Run Chipotle. Now Starbucks Might Just Buy It.
The Financial Times says Starbucks has quietly explored buying Chipotle, which would make Brian Niccol's old job also his very expensive side project.
The Financial Times reported this week that Starbucks has worked with advisers on a takeover proposal for Chipotle, calling the talks early-stage and noting they "might never get off the ground." Chipotle carries a market value near $39 billion, which would make any deal the largest in restaurant-industry history, blowing past Burger King's $11.4 billion purchase of Tim Hortons in 2014.
The twist nobody needed to be told twice: Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol ran Chipotle for six years before jumping to Starbucks in 2024, and the numbers since have moved in opposite directions. Starbucks stock is up more than 20% since he left Chipotle for it; Chipotle's has fallen roughly 45% in the same stretch, pressured by slowing same-store sales and a supplier-linked salmonella scare that spooked customers. Analysts aren't uniformly sold on the logic. RBC's Logan Reich sees little operational overlap between a coffee chain and a burrito chain, and William Blair's Sharon Zackfia floated the idea that Starbucks might need to sell off Starbucks Japan just to help fund it.
A Starbucks spokesperson gave the company's standard non-answer, declining to comment on "rumors and speculation" while pointing to its "Back to Starbucks" turnaround plan and promising fuller guidance when it reports Q4 results later this month. Chipotle didn't comment at all. Whether or not the deal ever surfaces officially, the subtext is hard to miss: the guy who fixed Chipotle once might be angling to do it again, this time as the buyer instead of the employee.
Source: Restaurant Business
Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →
