Unilever Foods Innovation Centre, Wageningen

The auditorium of the food innovation centre links the ground floor with a restaurant, a food market and meeting rooms. Credit: Archello.

A concession zone is located adjacent to the food market. Credit: Archello.

Unilever’s Hive also includes four innovation kitchens for culinary sessions with external parties. Credit: Archello.

Unilever has opened its new global foods innovation centre, named Hive, at the Wageningen University Campus, an international agri-food research hub located in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

The innovation centre involved an investment of $94.7m (€85m). Unilever aims to lead multiple innovation programmes at Hive, including programmes for Unilever brands such as The Vegetarian Butcher, Knorr, Hellman’s and Calve.

Symrise, a leading brand in consumer packaged goods and a supplier of Unilever, will also open an application lab at Hive.

The construction of the innovation centre began in November 2016, while operations began in November 2019. The following month, Hive was officially inaugurated by Willem-Alexander, the King of the Netherlands.

Unilever Wageningen innovation centre location

Hive is located at the Wageningen Campus in Wageningen, the Netherlands. The area is also known as the ‘Silicon Valley of Food’ and ‘Food Valley’.

Unilever foods innovation centre details

The innovation centre offers 18,000m² of area, including collaboration spaces, a pilot plant, a customer experience and food area, office spaces and laboratories. The building’s total floor area is 40,850m², which includes underground car parking.

The pilot plant at the innovation centre is a small factory intended for the small-scale production of new products. It is directly connected to the customer and food experience area. The pilot plant includes test kitchens that enable experiments for new products with innovative ingredients.

The innovation centre also includes a concept store, where food experts, students and staff members can sample the results of experiments and share their opinions.

A 6m-high light-filled atrium with a skylight and a wooden staircase connects the ground floor with the Unilever laboratories and offices. The skylight is embedded with 1,550 solar panels.

The atrium houses a food bar, while the building also features an auditorium that will serve as a town hall for food innovators working at the innovation centre.

The underground car park provides a parking facility to the employees of Wageningen University and Unilever.

Unilever foods innovation centre sustainable features

The Unilever Wageningen centre houses informal meeting spaces such as wide staircases and coffee corners. The roof surface was used for the installation of 1,800 PV panels for ensuring the building’s neutral energy usage.

Approximately 30% of the concrete parts used in the building are recyclable, including concrete granules and debris. The wood used in the building is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The interiors of the building were created using recycled parts made from furniture and kitchen appliances. The building is controlled by a multi-sensor system that measures radiant temperature based on the thermographic measurement of the objects.

The compact shape of the building and the high insulation of its surfaces, along with presence detectors, ensured the innovation centre achieved the BREEAM Outstanding certification for sustainability.

Contractors involved

Paul de Ruiter Architects was awarded a contract to design the innovation centre. Fokkema & Partners Architecten were responsible for providing the buiding’s interior designs.

In 2017, Dura Vermeer Bouw Hengelo was awarded a contract by Unilever to design and build the innovation centre.

Arcadis provided project management services for the innovation centre. Lucassen Bouwconstructies was the construction consultant, while Atelier LOOSvanVLIET was the landscape architect for the centre.

Marketing commentary on Unilever

Unilever is a world-leading supplier of food, refreshment products and home and personal care products. Its product portfolio includes household care essentials, refreshing teas, shampoos, soaps and many more products from 400 brands spread across 190 countries.

Unilever products are used by 2.5 billion customers each day. Some popular Unilever brands include Lifebuoy, Rexona, Sunsilk, Lipton, Knorr, Dove, Lux, Pepsodent and Brooke Bond.

The company currently aims to expand its products portfolio by offering plant-based, non-dairy refreshments and foods.

Unilever was named industry leader in the ‘Personal Products’ category in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) 2018. Since 1999, it has been ranked as a sector leader by DJSI 19 times and as top of the industry 17 times. The company also achieved the highest environmental score in FTSE4 Good Index.

In 2016, Unilever was ranked as the most sustainable beverage and food company in Oxfam’s Behind the Brands Scorecard.