How Oscar Mayer’s NASA-inspired Gastro Hub aims to turbocharge NPD

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A Mission Control room sits at the centre of Oscar Mayer’s new seven-figure Gastro Hub. It’s all part of CEO Ian Toal’s plan to turbocharge innovation

A 14-metre-wide screen spans one end of what Oscar Mayer CEO Ian Toal refers to as his “Mission Control” room. In front of it stands a boardroom table for planning a successful launch.

As the name suggests, it’s a space that was inspired by NASA. But this swanky meeting room has nothing to do with space travel. Rather, it’s part of Oscar Mayer’s new Gastro Hub – a dedicated food and packaging innovation centre for customers and suppliers at its Wrexham site.

It’s the brainchild of Toal, who was drafted in as CEO last June, just weeks after the chilled meals manufacturer was taken over by its institutional lender, Pemberton Asset Management.

Toal has a challenging road ahead of him. While Oscar Mayer’s most recent accounts show revenues up £48.1m to £343.9m, operating losses increased to £17.1m from £10.4m [53 w/e 1 April 2023].

The recent loss of a retail contract also meant staff at the Wrexham site were informed of possible redundancies earlier this year. Consultations are ongoing.

At this critical point, Toal is determined to “do something different” to reverse Oscar Mayer’s fortunes. That’s where the Gastro Hub comes in. The result of a “seven-figure investment”, the site is intended first and foremost to “speed up the innovation process” among its brand and retailer customers.

First, customers meet in Mission Control for presentations and conference calls. After hashing out their innovation plans, they’re invited to concept test their proposals through Oscar Mayer’s new AI app, created in partnership with Bulbshare. It sends out tailor-made surveys to consumers – to date, it has amassed about 1,000 – who give feedback in real time.

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Oscar’s Market

While waiting for the results of these surveys, customers can visit Oscar’s Market, home to 10 market stalls manned by Oscar Mayer’s various suppliers of meat, seafood, cheese, vegetables, stocks and more.

“The inspiration came from Borough Market,” says Toal. “I wanted to make it feel like a proper market, but when our customers come and see us, they can meet different suppliers.”

Not many food manufacturers encourage open communication between their suppliers and customers, but Toal hopes it will demystify any potential trade-off between cost and quality. “Customers can talk to our butcher and ask: ‘why is our casserole tough?’ and the butcher can advise them to use a different cut of meat.”

Next up is the AI & Insights Lab, where 50 members of the public are invited each week to eat and judge new concepts from Oscar Mayer’s development chefs. The room is kitted out with microphones and a one-way mirror so customers can learn from the feedback.

Adjacent to the Lab is the Packaging, ESG & Merchandising Shop, a mock convenience store that “showcases our packaging available around the world”.

There, customers can learn more about Oscar Mayer’s packaging suppliers and solutions, with the opportunity to create new prototypes for their products.

“You can take an idea, draw it, our CAD designer will send it to our 3D printer, and by the time you go home you can take that bit of packaging with you,” says Toal.

The shop’s chillers can also be mocked up with various products. “We can play around and look at what’s the best way to merchandise,” he says.

Toal hopes the time spent by customers at the new facility will translate into “many more brand collaborations in the chilled category over the next few years”.

He points to Oscar Mayer’s recent tie-up with Cathedral City as a shining example. The products – an extra-cheesy lasagne, cottage pie, chicken & bacon pasta bake and macaroni cheese – went through similar phases of concept testing and consumer feedback as those now being modelled in the Gastro Hub.

“Our approach is… to shorten the [innovation] process significantly, from months and years to weeks and days,” he says.

Ultimately, he hopes the Gastro Hub will help the industry create more products “that consumers actually want to buy”. That would be a win-win-win for retailers, manufacturers and shoppers alike.