How Oscar Mayer's NASA-Inspired Gastro Hub Aims to Boost NPD

A 45-foot-wide screen occupies one end of what Oscar Mayer CEO Ian Toal calls his “mission control” room. In front of it is a conference table designed to plan a successful launch.

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

It’s the brainchild of Toal, who was named CEO last June, just weeks after the refrigerated food maker was acquired by its institutional lender, Pemberton Asset Management.

Toal has a rocky road ahead. While Oscar Mayer’s most recent accounts show revenues up £48.1m to £343.9m, operating losses have widened £10.4m to £17.1m (53 weeks to 1 April 2023).

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

At this critical juncture, Toal is determined to “do something different” to reverse Oscar Mayer’s trend. That’s where the Gastro Hub comes in. The result of a “seven-figure investment,” the site’s primary goal is to “accelerate the innovation process” for its brand and retail clients.

Customers first gather at Mission Control for presentations and conference calls. After defining their innovation plans, they are invited to test their proposals using Oscar Mayer’s new AI app, created in partnership with Bulbshare. It sends out tailored surveys to consumers (about 1,000 so far) who provide feedback in real time.

Oscar Market

While waiting for the results of these investigations, customers can visit the Oscar Market, which houses 10 booths run by Oscar Mayer’s various suppliers of meat, seafood, cheese, vegetables, broths and more.

“The inspiration came from Borough Market,” Toal explains. “I wanted it to be like a real market, but when our customers come to see us, they can meet different vendors.”

Few food manufacturers encourage open communication between their suppliers and customers, but Toal hopes it will help demystify any potential trade-offs between cost and quality. “Customers can talk to our butcher and ask, ‘Why is our stew 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 chef developers. The room is equipped with microphones and a one-way mirror so diners can learn from the feedback.

Next to the lab is the Packaging, ESG & Merchandising Shop, a mock convenience store that “showcases our globally available packaging.”

Customers can learn more about Oscar Mayer’s suppliers and packaging 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 piece of packaging with you,” Toal explains.

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The store’s refrigerated display cases can also be equipped with different products. “We can play around with it and see what’s the best way to present our products,” he explains.

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

He cites Oscar Mayer’s recent partnership with Cathedral City as an example. The products—extra-cheesy lasagna, shepherd’s pie, chicken and bacon pasta and macaroni and cheese—have undergone similar phases of concept testing and consumer feedback to those currently modeled in the Gastro Hub.

“Our approach is… to dramatically shorten the (innovation) process, 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 will actually want to buy.” It would be a win-win for retailers, manufacturers and consumers.