Chipotle Mexican Grill is trying to save its lunch.
Once the darling of Wall Street, the fast-casual restaurant chain known for supersized burritos is crawling back from a series of food scares involving E. coli and norovirus in 2015, and again last year, that cratered the company's stock price, hurt its reputation, and left customers reeling.
How bad was the hit? 2016 comparable sales fell 20.4 percent from the previous year.
Last week, Chipotle named a new chief executive from Taco Bell, and earlier this month announced it will soon launch a loyalty program, where customers can earn free meals based on frequency of visits. There's a focus on customer enhancements such as a better menu and online ordering.
"Chipotle represents a unique [recovery] situation because the food safety incidents call into question the "Food With Integrity" mantra that its brand was built upon," wrote Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy in an October report.
Effective March 5, Brian Niccol becomes the new CEO to replace M. Steven Ells. Niccol most recently served as CEO of Yum Brands' Taco Bell Division, where he helped lead the highly successful turnaround of that business.
Chipotle's new loyalty program will allow Chipotle to differentiate itself from the competition, said Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce, a marketing and technology platform for loyalty programs.
A Chipotle spokesman said few details were available, only that it will start the second half of 2018.
