Clover faces many new challenges in its next iteration, from replenishing a depleted food inventory, and rewriting its long-term strategy. It also must inform customers that it actually exists again.
A “mission-aligned investor came in at the very last minute after we had wound down,” said Wrin Piper, who declined to say who the investor was or how much they invested. Instead, she described this person as being a “Clover supporter.”
“I can’t share the details of the deal,” she said.
During a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday, Wrin Piper could not answer many specific questions, including how many of its 170 employees would be able to keep their jobs, how many stores would be open, or what would even be on their menus. (Specific store reopenings, which will be both in Cambridge and Boston, will be announced later this week on Clover’s social media and through newsletters to customers, she said.)
“I want to emphasize: We’re working really quickly to implement this plan,” said Wrin Piper, who said she was overwhelmed by the outflowing support for Clover, where customers lined up for what they thought were Clover’s final servings of rosemary fries and mushroom popper sandwiches.
The company received all sorts of love letters from customers, and someone even wrote them a song. Red Fire Farm in Granby posted on their Instagram: “Clover, how we are going to miss you guys!”
Clover employee Ethan Newsome makes one of the last sandwiches at the downtown location of Clover on what was supposed to be the company’s last day in business on May 28.Lane Turner/Globe Staff
“We’re doing this at a much-reduced footprint as a way of focusing in the community that has obviously been here for Clover for a long time, and we hope to be here for that community for a long time,” said Wrin Piper.
She said the company is “resourced” enough to plan for ongoing inflationary pressures, which have raised the cost of ingredients by 30 to 50 percent compared to two years ago.
What Wrin Piper could definitively say was that the company would be winding down its 10,000-square-foot commissary in East Cambridge. Moving forward, kitchen prep will be done in-store.
Founder Ayr Muir launched Clover Food Lab in October 2008 as a food truck near MIT’s campus. His goal was to serve vegetable-based recipes that even carnivores would enjoy and to source ingredients locally.
Muir, who remains on the board but is not the new investor, left the company in the fall of 2023, and Wrin Piper took over as Clover’s CEO right before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. She inherited a company that was facing imminent liquidation.
In recent months, Clover’s management team has gone public with their desire to find a buyer that could keep some or all of the business going. Many of its potential acquirers faced the same macroeconomic headwinds.
The deal with the new mystery investor closed on Friday, after all of Clover’s restaurants shut down and after it had sold out of practically all of its food.
“We sold out of all of our food, from the entire company,” said Wrin Piper. “I think, maybe, we have a half pallet of pita left.”
From the outside, the last few weeks may have looked like whiplash for Clover executives and employees alike. Some employees already secured new jobs.
Wrin Piper, who has one young child at home and whose wife is expecting a second this summer, said she hadn’t thought about walking away.
“I think it’s really important for me to work on this next iteration, starting this week,” she said. “We’re also figuring out a long-term operational plan. My goal is to do what is best for Clover now.”
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
