Zume Pizza closes down, cuts 172 jobs in Mountain View

Company that used robots to make pizzas also cuts 80 jobs in San Francisco

Zume Pizza, the Mountain View company that used robots to make its pizzas, has made its last delivery.

In filings with the state Employment Development Department, Zume said it is cutting 172 jobs in Mountain View, and eliminating another 80 jobs at its facility in San Francisco. Zume Chief Executive Alex Garden made the annoucement about Zume in an email to company employees on Wednesday.

“With admiration and sadness, we are closing Zume Pizza today,” Garden said in his email “Over the last four years this business has been our invention test bed and has been our inspiration for many of the growth businesses we have at Zume today.”

Zume was known for using for robotic technology to put its pizzas together, as well as its red delivery trucks that operated around Mountain View and parts of San Francisco. Adam Ezzat, an employee at Boss Barbell Club, which shared a parking area with Zume on Polaris Ave. in Mountain View, said it looked like things weren’t right at Zume when he was at work Wednesday night.

“At around 8 or 9, I saw their trucks leaving, which was earlier than they typically did,” Ezzat said. “I came in today around noon, and all of their trucks were gone.”

The Bay Area job cuts are part of a larger restructuring at Zume, as the company is reducing its headcount by a total of 360 employees. Zume said it intends to put its focus on its food packaging and delivery systems.

Garden said that despite the layoffs, former employees will be able to apply for the 100 new positions Zume expects to have in its packaging business. The company didn’t say where those positions would be located.

Zume is also known for being backed by Japanese investment giant Softbank, which has taken some hits over the last year due to the decline in value of its investments in Uber and WeWork.