Sarah Nassauer of The Wall Street Journal reports that Wonder Group CEO Marc Lore is shifting to conventional restaurant delivery, which will require less funding and generate profits sooner, shifting away from its original plan for a nationwide fleet of trucks. Nassauer writes:
Food-delivery startup Wonder Group is laying off staff and scrapping its plans to roll out a nationwide fleet of food trucks, shifting to a more conventional and less expensive restaurant delivery model.
The shift is a significant change for the four-year-old startup, which currently cooks food with a fleet of around 500 food trucks that deliver to households in the New Jersey and New York suburbs. The company has raised $900 million in venture capital and was valued at around $3.5 billion last year. […]
Wonder will start phasing out trucks next week in some New Jersey neighborhoods, Mr. Lore said. That process will stretch through the spring. As the trucks disappear, the company hopes to open fixed locations that will serve existing customers in addition to new areas, he said.
The shift may please some New Jersey residents who bristled at the sight of Wonder trucks idling in their tree-lined neighborhoods to cook and deliver meals, according to a Wall Street Journal article last summer.
Read more here.