Starbucks has named the outgoing head of Reckitt Benckiser as its next chief executive, handing Laxman Narasimhan the task of executing a “reinvention” strategy designed by Howard Schultz since he returned in April to take charge of the coffee chain for a third time.

The India-born, US-educated executive will join as “incoming CEO” on October 1 but will spend six months working with Schultz before the man who built a Seattle coffee bean supplier into a global brand steps back from his interim CEO role to a non-executive position in April.

Starbucks’s appointment of the 55-year-old outsider came hours after Reckitt, the UK consumer goods group behind Durex condoms and Dettol and Lysol cleaning products, surprised investors with the news that Narasimhan was leaving at the end of September for an opportunity that would let him move from London to the US.