Brian Niccol’s record of turning around declining sales and adding locations at Chipotle Mexican Grill appears to have been a key factor in Starbucks' decision to tap the retail veteran to head up the world's biggest coffee chain as it brews up new ways to cut costs and increase foot traffic.

Niccol, slated to take over Sept. 9, will be in charge of staging a similar turnaround of the Seattle-based coffee giant that's faced slipping demand in the face of growing competition from smaller, fast-growing independent chains such as Dutch Bros. in recent years, and will oversee an expansion of Starbucks' nearly 40,000 global locations.

Niccol will replace Laxman Narasimhan, who has stepped down as CEO and board director after about 16 months on the job.

The replacement came as a surprise to some analysts, including Morgan Stanley’s Brian Harbour, who noted the departure results from growing dissatisfaction among shareholders and activist investors over the way the chain has been run in recent years.

“Starbucks is not Chipotle, with a more complicated global business, licensed partners and real challenges with retail operations and labor,” Harbour said in a research note. “But [Chipotle] has developed into a very good retail operation, where throughput, staffing and the infrastructure to manage stores have improved a lot and continue to get better.”

The move comes less than a year after Starbucks rolled out plans to ramp up its global growth by opening 17,000 new stores by 2030, while also cutting $3 billion in costs.

The plan that the chain called its "Triple Shot Reinvention Strategy" calls for improving store operations, strengthening the chain’s digital capabilities, accelerating renovations and adding more “purpose-defined” stores, such as pick-up, drive-thru and delivery-only locations.

Niccol’s tenure as CEO of Chipotle since March 2018 has been marked by strong expansion as other restaurant chains have struggled to keep customers, according to Harbour and other analysts. Under Niccol's leadership, Chipotle's sales nearly doubled and its stock surged nearly 800%.

Prior to joining the fast-casual restaurant chain based in Newport Beach, California, Niccol served as CEO of fast-food giant Taco Bell, a division of Yum Brands, for more than three years starting in January 2015, four years after joining the firm as chief marketing and innovation officer. During that time, Niccol helped improve the brand's reputation after a 2011 lawsuit alleged the company's tacos included more filler than beef, according to the New York Times. He also oversaw social media and mobile ordering initiatives that are now a cornerstone of the brand.

Niccol’s experience exapanding store footprints at Chipotle and Taco Bell should prove helpful at Starbucks in reviewing the chain’s operations and massive retail real estate portfolio, Neil Saunders, a retail analyst and managing director of analytics firm GlobalData, told CoStar News in an email Tuesday.

Starbucks reported declining sales over the past two quarters as its business has struggled in the United States. Net sales dropped 1% to $9.1 billion in the most recent quarter that ended June 30, fueled by a 5% decline in retail transactions and a 6% drop in traffic in its U.S. stores, compared with the year-earlier period, according to the company’s earnings statement.

“One of Starbucks' problems is that its stores have become very variable in terms of the experience they offer,” Saunders said. “There needs to be more discipline around management. They also need to review the [store] portfolio to ensure it is optimized."

While part of the Starbucks slowdown can be attributed to consumers cutting back, “much is also the result of a worsening store experience and a lack of innovation in areas like food” as the chain has lost market share to smaller independent coffee shops and other rivals, Saunders said.

Given the scale of the challenges, a change of leadership may take time to achieve results, Saunders added.

“Niccol’s deep food service experience will be useful as Starbucks navigates a cocktail of challenges, including increased costs, labor issues, operational inefficiency, and a growing dissatisfaction among customers,” Saunders said.

Chipotle, meanwhile, has appointed Chief Operating Officer Scott Boatwright as interim CEO when Niccol leaves the company at the end of this month. Boatwright has been “instrumental in driving restaurant operations for the company's more than 120,000 employees and over 3,500 restaurants” since joining Chipotle in 2017, according to a company statement.