Chipotle Mexican Grill announced plans to relocate its headquarters from Denver, Colo., to Newport Beach, Calif. Functions within the current Denver office will either be consolidated in Chipotle's existing office in Columbus, Ohio, or moved to the new headquarters in Newport Beach.

"We have a tremendous opportunity at Chipotle to shape the future of our organization and drive growth through our new strategy," says Brian Niccol, chief executive officer. "In order to align the structure around our strategic priorities, we are transforming our culture and building world-class teams to revitalize the brand and enable our long-term success. We'll always be proud of our Denver roots, where we opened our first restaurant 25 years ago. The consolidation of offices and the move to California will help us drive sustainable growth while continuing to position us well in the competition for top talent."

Over the next six months, Chipotle will transition its Denver and New York office functions to Newport Beach and Columbus. Newport Beach will serve as the headquarters for the company's operations, business development, marketing, communications, finance, supply chain, food safety, technology, human resources and other corporate functions. The support functions will be located in the Shared Services Center in Columbus. Following this transition, Chipotle will close its Denver and New York City offices.

This move will affect approximately 400 employees in Denver and New York in Q4. The 70,000 field operations and restaurant employees are not part of this reorganization.