Things To Do In SW Florida

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

In 2018, Chipotle was reeling from multiple food poisoning outbreaks that had sickened 1,100 people, the company called Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol to turn things around.

As Chipotle’s Chairman and CEO, Niccol beefed up the company’s marketing and product innovation, added a loyalty program and improved store operations. He also instituted employee benefits, like a program that pays employees’ college tuition costs at certain schools.

Chipotle’s revenue since then has nearly doubled.

On Tuesday, Niccol answered another call, this time from Starbucks. The Seattle coffee giant named Niccol as its new chairman and CEO, hoping he can revive fading sales and re-establish Starbucks as a destination where customers are willing to pay premium prices.

“I am excited to join Starbucks and grateful for the opportunity to help steward this incredible company, alongside hundreds of thousands of devoted partners,” Niccol said.

However, Niccol faces far larger and deeper challenges at Starbucks, which has 38,000 stores worldwide compared with Chipotle’s largely U.S.-based chain of 3,500 restaurants. Niccol has to figure out how to get inflation-weary U.S. customers back into stores for its pricey drinks. read more

Jeff Polk walks the construction site of the Epic Universe theme park frequently. He’s an executive vice president at Universal Orlando and Epic’s general manager. Progress is visible from afar as the company builds toward an announced 2025 opening date.

“I’m sure you’ve seen it just coming out of the ground rather rapidly,” Polk told participants at an International Drive Resort Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon recently.

“I’ve been living in that bunker for about seven years now working on this project. … It has been the joy of a lifetime,” he said.

“We are, I would say, putting everything that we’ve learned to do well in one place at one time. And we have tried and tried and tried to make sure that what everybody’s going to experience next year just completely blows you away,” Polk said.

“After having looked at drawings and looked at pictures of all of it myself, I still can’t believe what we’re building. Every day, I walk out there to something more amazing than the next,” he said. read more