It’s the end of an era for Clover Food Lab.
Founder and CEO Ayr Muir announced over the weekend that the popular Boston chain is saying goodbye to its food trucks to focus on its brick-and-mortar locations in Cambridge and other parts of Massachusetts. The announcement comes as a bit of a surprise considering that Clover launched as a mobile eatery in 2008.
Muir revealed the news in a blog post published on Saturday which explained the thought process behind the tough decision.
This is the end of a process that started a few years ago. It was back in 2014 or so that we stopped using the trucks to drive the sales and bottom line for Clover, and shifted their role to marketing and site selection. As I look at Clover today I want to focus our attention on the restaurants. I love trucks so much, it was how I started. But they add a lot of daily complexity. We’ll be a better company if we’re more streamlined and more focused.
According to the post, the Clover food truck in Dewey Square will remain active until Friday, Aug. 7, and will close with a special celebration on its last day. The Newbury Street food truck has already stopped its operations due to a mechanical issue.
Thankfully, there won’t be any cuts to Clover’s staff as they make the transition to a restaurant-focused model.
“We have incredibly talented folks working on the trucks, and they will all be staying with Clover,” Muir wrote in the post. “We are growing fast at all of our restaurants and are eager to bolster our ranks with additional talent.”
The original Clover truck and a second mobile eatery will be kept on hand for catering and events while the rest will be sold so other “ambitious entrepreneurs test new ideas.”
