Barcelona: retail & food-to-go highlights

There's a lot going on in Barcelona right now across both retail and food-to-go, and within different segments of the market. Fresh produce led concepts across retail and foodservice, next level supermarkets, differentiated empanada chains and enticing bakery-led concepts rank among the highlights - check out our top five recommendations below, and get in touch for deeper insights.

1. Ametller Origen, Mercat D’Autors

A stellar concept, with an inspirational back story. This is a business to learn from, in terms of both their ethical & sustainable approach and how that delivers through to their entire, highly impressive, customer proposition. The core focus is on outstanding fresh products, very much drawing on the farming heritage of the business, but this increasingly extends into prepared food and dine in solutions for this business that now operates from almost 150 locations across Catalonia and Andorra.

2. El Corte Inglés Supermercado, Carrer de Buenos Aires

If you’ve visited Spain, you’ll have likely visited an El Corte Inglés department store – it’s a major feature and reference point within the Spanish retail landscape. And in the past couple of years, there has been a strengthening focus on food & drink missions, both in the core estate and in specific standalone supermarket developments, such as this one in Barcelona. Premium food retailing, a strong focus on prepared meal solutions. impressive counters, and collaborations with the likes of local bakery favourite Baluard make this an inspirational food & drink retail destination.

3. Honest Greens, many locations including La Rambla

A contemporary, healthy fast-casual brand built around fresh & seasonal ingredients, delivering a range of better for you solutions across key dayparts. The concept retains appeal deep into the evening, in contrast to many similar brands, with significant focus placed on design and ambience as well as on the food. It is increasingly focused on international expansion - having for example opened its first London store under the hg brand late last year.

4. Las Muns, many locations including Ronda Universitat

Empanadas have been a key growth area in Spain over recent years, linked to the inherent snackability and portability of the product amidst a more flexible approach to meals, plus of course significant immigration from Latin America into Spain, including from countries like Argentina where empanadas are part of the cultural DNA.  Las Muns is the concept that’s stood out to us in this regard – it’s a playful modern and relevant take on the empanada, including great use of colour to segment the product range, extensive flavour experimentation and collaborations with leading chefs.  

5. Mercadona, many locations including Gran Via 191

As a strong market leader, Mercadona sets the tone for grocery retailing in Spain – its focus on prepared foods for example is stimulating a wider focus across the market. There are many factors that have driven its success, its differentiated business model and way of working with suppliers being perhaps the key one. In the manner of Apple, it continues to iterate its formats, currently on ‘tienda 9’.  And while there are not yet any tienda 9 formats in Barcelona, it’s adding some of the features of the format to existing stores, such as the one on Gran Via 191.

Want to know more about how food retail and food-to-go are evolving across Europe? And to know who are the innovators in this space you can learn from? Get in touch gavin@foodfuturesinsights.com.