PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Two years after opening in Portland, Fork Food Lab is closing next month. Local business owners who rent the shared work space received an e-mail from the parent company, Pilotworks. The kitchen's last day will be September 30th.
"Please know we’ve made every possible attempt to identify potential outcomes to keep this location open," Pilotworks told its members in an FAQ sheet attached to the email. "While this is not the outcome that anyone had hoped for, we remain committed to working collectively to wind down operations as smoothly as possible to minimize the impact to our customers, vendors, and the communities we serve."
Zach Ware, CEO of Pilotworks further elaborated in an e-mail response to NEWS CENTER Maine:
Everything we do at Pilotworks is designed to create material value for the independent food companies we serve— in a way that’s sustainable without subsidy. And due to the structural layout and market dynamics in this location, operating sustainably was not feasible long-term led us to the decision to close it.
We realize this action causes challenges for the companies we serve and our teams are dedicated to helping the companies we serve find alternatives in the coming weeks.
Pilotworks is continuing to invest in our New York Metro, Chicago, and Dallas locations with an aggressive growth plan slated for 2019.
Since its inception in 2016, members pay a fee to use the kitchen space and its equipment as a way to save money. Businesses like Cape Whoopies in South Portland started at Fork Food Lab.
"I feel so sick about it because it could easily have been me," said Marcia Wiggins, the founder of Cape Whoopies. She got her start at the Fork Food Lab before opening her whoopie pie cafe in South Portland, in May.
Dozens of business owners who still depend on the space are now looking for other options.
Jacqueline Dole is the creator of The Parlor Ice Cream Co. and is one of nearly 40 entrepreneurs blindsided by the closing of Fork Food Lab.
"Seems like they may have known about this for maybe a month before they chose to share the news with us," Dole said.
In an e-mail sent Monday to members to notify of the September 30th closure, the parent company Pilotworks provided a link to an FAQ form, and that's where Dole says she found a discrepancy.
"They just said you know over the next twelve weeks we'll be guiding you through the process, it's not twelve weeks until shutdown from the date that we found out the news. I did call that to their attention and they edited it," said Dole.
Neil Spillane and Eric Holstein founded Fork Food Lab in 2016. In June 2017, the business was sold to New York based, Foodworks, which is now Pilotworks.