Spanish food distribution company Mercadona is opening a 'Co-Innovation Centre' in Portugal to get acquainted with the habits and preferences of local consumers.
Located in Matosinhos near Porto, the centre will help Mercadona work with customers to adapt its offer to the local market and to develop innovative products.
To this end, the supermarket chain will develop products that match Portuguese consumer tastes, identify the products that make up their usual shopping basket, and thus introduce improvements and innovations in the five product categories sold by Mercadona: food (fresh and dry), beverages, household cleaning, personal hygiene and pet care.
Thanks to its Co-Innovation Model, the retailer has a success rate four times the industry average in launching new products in Spain .
The building, with an area of 1,000 square metres, should open in the second quarter of 2017, and will join 12 similar centres in Spain.
Mercadona plans to open four supermarkets in Portugal during 2019 and has already started to train its first 150 employees.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
