Mercadona: Jarrods, the creation of a new laboratory for innovation
In 2019 Mercadona and bicg begin work on the new model of ways of working and spaces for its new headquarters in Albalat.
Valencia, Spain – Retail – 2020
Shortly afterwards, in 2020, a new element was added to the project, the review and analysis of the Mercadona co-innovation centre.
The pilot store ‘Jarrods,’ originally used for product testing before items reached the main store, is envisioned to become a workspace for experimentation, visualization, and product testing. It aims to involve workers responsible for defining the assortment in overseeing the entire process from initiation to completion.
In contemplating the project’s goals and scope, it becomes a more ambitious initiative: what if we also incorporate all those areas that work transversally in the assortment definition process? What if we co-localise all the actors involved, reducing response times, and generating closer collaboration?
Within the framework of our collaboration with Mercadona, Jarrods represented a pilot to rethink its working model and set up what will be Mercadona’s co-innovation centre at the Albalat headquarters.
The outcome was a building that appears to be a supermarket and which, but upon opening its doors, it reveals a working environment designed to enable the organization’s employees to approach the creation of new products and distribution activities. With its focus on the customer, it combines spaces for experimentation with spaces for collaboration, individual work or teamwork in an environment of co-creation and creativity.
This simulated supermarket serves as an innovation hub where departments directly influencing the value chain—from product ideation to distribution and retail network—can collaborate to ensure agility, continuous improvement, as well as end-to-end involvement in the process. To stay close to what they conceive, test, and ultimately implement in their stores, the shelves are arranged alongside office workspaces, and areas dedicated to food handling coexist with versatile meeting rooms.
The Albalat project takes on a new dimension with the coexistence in the future headquarters of the corporate offices and Mercadona’s most important co-innovation centre. The architectural design materializes the significance of bridging the realms of retail, product innovation, and corporate work, seamlessly connecting these diverse experiences.
