Johanne Engelhardt Said and Michelle Pedersen integrate design into Easyfood’s business – from school classes and trend trips to actual products on the market.
When designers do their work, it shows on Orkla Denmark’s bottom line
Typically, company visits are something you “offer” to guests when you open your doors. At Orkla Denmark Food Solutions in Kolding, where they work with the Easyfood brand, visits are seen as a two-way opportunity to share – and to learn. This applies equally when school and college classes visit their PowerHouse and Easyfood production lines.
- We want to create value for both sides, says Johanne Engelhardt Said, Head of Innovation at Orkla Denmark Food Solutions. She studied design management at the University of Southern Denmark and Kolding School of Design.
This approach is by no means accidental. Many years ago, Easyfood moved away from traditional project management in innovation and began working systematically with design processes – also known as Design Thinking. That means design at Easyfood isn’t just something handled at the management level. It’s part of everyday business and driven very close to both the products and the users. Design is used as a practical tool for decision-making when the market doesn’t give clear answers.
Concretely, the company draws on input from young people to shape products such as Spinach & Feta Swirls and the high-protein snack, Snackables. The young visitors aren’t just invited in for a tour and a pastry. They provide knowledge, opinions, and reactions that Easyfood directly incorporates into product development.
- Firstly, we know that young people are an important target group. On these visits, it became very clear that protein was important to them – even if they couldn’t fully explain why. We’ve actively used that insight in developing new products aimed specifically at that group, says Johanne Engelhardt Said.
Often it’s the bakery designer, Michelle Pedersen, who is on the floor, listening closely. A graduate of Kolding School of Design, she dreamed of designing wedding dresses just a few years ago. Today, her focus is elsewhere – on processes and decisions. Part of her work is collaborating with young people, using them as a valuable source of input.
- For us, it’s valuable because young people are one of our target groups. When they tell us what they want, we can use that as a starting point. Not because we do exactly what they say, but because it helps us figure out what can realistically work. With the right methods, the input can be collected, sorted, and turned into something practical, says Michelle Pedersen, Brand Experience Designer.
Johanne Engelhardt Said is Head of Innovation at Easyfood. For her, design processes are not theory but a practical tool in the daily development of the business.
This investigative approach to design has also helped Easyfood ride the sourdough wave and spot early on that Shrovetide buns were evolving into more than a seasonal item.
- That’s part of design. You have to keep experimenting, says Johanne Engelhardt Said, pointing out that design processes are also about speed and knowing when to stop.
- We start quickly, but we also need to be able to drop things if they don’t work. That helps ensure we don’t waste resources on the wrong ideas.
Easyfood’s systematic use of Design Thinking helps explain why the company has delivered record results in recent years. The path, however, is not linear. Shrovetide buns and sourdough are tangible examples of what Easyfood’s design approach can produce, but they’re also a reminder that design doesn’t provide instant answers.
- You can’t just look back a month or two and judge if it worked. When you work with design like this, you need to keep a cool head and observe over time. Things will go wrong along the way, and that’s part of the process – the key is learning from mistakes. If you want to get results, you have to persevere, even when you can’t see immediate outcomes, says Johanne Engelhardt Said.
This approach requires courage – especially in an organisation like Easyfood, now part of the Orkla Group after the majority stake was bought in 2019.
- It takes courage and trust to work this way. Trust in the process and in the people you put in charge of it. You have to stay calm and accept that you won’t always have the answers from the start, she says.
Michelle Pedersen trained as a designer at Kolding School of Design. Her ability to listen and organise input is key to Easyfood’s use of school classes in product development.
About Easyfood
Easyfood is a Danish bakery company based in Kolding, founded in 2000. The company produces bread, cakes, and to-go bakery items for major Danish and international retailers, cafés, and convenience stores. Easyfood has been part of the Orkla Group since 2019, when co-founder Flemming Paasch sold his majority stake.
Easyfood uses Design Thinking as a central method in innovation and product development. This means they systematically collect user insights, generate ideas, prototype, and test solutions before launching new products, solutions, and concepts.
