A nice Formula combination: a Warm Bakery in 5 Albert Heijn Supermarkets.

What exactly is the challenge when you bring a supermarket formula such as Albert Heijn and a Warme Bakker together?

Bakkerij Heerschap has been a household name in Limburg since 1966. Since that year, two young bakers have been active in Nederweert. In the fifty years that follow, it develops into a solid company with Warme Bakker, a bakery and 5 supermarkets. The son of the original founders, Stan Heerschap is now at the helm. The craft and local products of De Heerschap Bakkerij are also the core and pride for the supermarkets.

In order to transfer the 5 stores to an Albert Heijn formula from January 2022, the transition was preceded by sound preparations. These 5 projects were designed almost simultaneously. The coordination of the designs with the architectural part for the hull renovation has also been integrated. Add to that a franchiser who has yet to get to know Albert Heijn’s tightly managed process and you see that strong leadership is needed.

NewArmstrong found this strong leadership in a combination of Alex Carol, from Heerschap Groep and Richard Meis, NewArmstrong’s project manager. Alex and Richard have jointly ensured a clear process and clear monitoring of the deadlines, Alex for decision-making within Heerschap Groep, Richard on the side of NewArmstrong.

As an architect, NewArmstrong has followed an investigative design process together with Albert Heijn. The assignment was to find the formula combination of the craft; to bring the ideas of the Heerschap Bakkerij and the Albert Heijn Real Fresh Formula together in one interior design .

Together with Albert Heijn and Heerschap, the designers, Loes van der Tuuk and Sophia Zoon, have searched for the way of product presentation that suits Bakkerij Heerschap and the detailed implementation of furniture that goes with it.

Not only was the formula new for Heerschap, the working method from the first Lay Out sketch to a UO ( Execution Ready Design ) according to the strict timeline of an Albert Heijn project was also new for the organisation.

Because dde Heerschap Bakkerij wants to give the same recognisability in supermarkets everywhere, we have ensured that the developments in the first and fifth design are incorporated at the same time. By completing the projects at the same time, we ensured that construction budgets could be determined simultaneously.

Formula development with virtual design models

You design a bakery department from two sides: from the customer’s side it is product presentation, from the employee’s side it is a workplace. For that workplace, every action by the employees in the baking and preparation process must be properly evaluated: 1 extra step per loaf of bread equals 500 extra steps per day.

We have worked out the bakery furniture in 3d. In addition, we scheduled additional 3D design sessions so that Alex Carol’s team could think about the presentation of the Heerschap products together with the Albert Heijn Formula team. The unique products, such as the Limburg flans, require a specific presentation.

The Operations team was also able to assess the workplace through the eyes of the employees to indicate whether the new workplace meets the requirements they set for it.

Due to the clarity of the 3D presentations, NewArmstrong, together with Albert Heijn and the Heerschap group, has brought the design and development process to the most successful possible result. This makes the Heerschap supermarkets a good combination of the Albert Heijn Echt Fresh formula and Heerschap’s view of the bakery trade.

Limburg Hospitality, and open on time!

The design and engineering of the five Heerschap stores was completed in September 2021. It was a thorough and robust development process, so that in a period from January 2022 to March 2022, all five stores were converted one after the other. We have experienced it as a very pleasant and pleasant collaboration, partly thanks to the Limburg Hospitality of the Heerschap group!

^ Marie Antoinette Freeblood and Sophia Son

Photo Lordship Group: Yasmine Hargreaves