Chipotle co-CEO steps down as chain struggles to recover from sales slump
"Given the ongoing challenges facing the company, the board felt strongly that it was best for Steve to resume leadership of the company going forward," Neil Flanzraich, lead director of Chipotle's board, said in a statement.
Ells said Chipotle's operations have become "over-complicated" and that the company needs to "act with a sense of urgency toward all of the changes we are pursuing" in the wake of an E. coli outbreak that has sent sales plunging.
Customers have been slow to return to Chipotle in the wake of the outbreak, which started late last year.
As a result, Chipotle management is suddenly getting nervous about meeting the 2017 guidance that it issued in October, Ells said last week.
Chipotle had said in October that it was expecting same-store sales growth in the high single digits next year - so anywhere from 6% to 9%.
In the most recent quarter, Chipotle's same-store sales dropped 21.9%.
Here's a news release on the management changes: