Living Offices|S05E10| Colep Consumer Products
Porto, Portugal [Go to PT Version]
Colep Consumer Products, a RAR Group company, is a global leader in contract manufacturing in cosmetics, personal care, home care and OTC pharmaceutical industries, providing innovative solutions for brands around the world. With a turnover of 251 million euros, it employs around 1400 people in Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Mexico and Poland. As a member of “ACOA — The Alliance of Colep & One Asia”, Colep Consumer Products offers its customers an operation on a global scale.
Office File
Company: Colep Consumer Products
Location: Porto, Portugal
Total Area: 350 m2
Year: 2022
Capacity: 30 people
Industry: Industry
Office Design: Lemonworks (office design) + RAR Imobiliária (obra)
We enter the Colep Consumer Products office and feel a breath of fresh air with light and transparency throughout the space. Located in a building dating from the thirties of the twentieth century, and on the premises of the RAR Açúcar (sugar) factory, the view over the factory and the industrial area of Porto is the focus when you look out the window. However, inside the recently renovated office, the space transmits calm and contemporaneity.
The shades that dominate the space are neutral, ranging from white to gray, highlighted by the wooden reception counter at the entrance. But there is the vibrant orange, color of the company’s logo that can also be seen in the decoration pictures that highlight and celebrate its products. The reception conveys what Colep Consumer Products sees as its essence: simplicity through modernity, with a strong presence through image.
We enter and walk through the corridor, and after passing by the meeting rooms, we come across the common area right in the heart of the office: the lounge. This space features a variety of warm and welcoming colors. The comfort of the furniture invites visitors to sit and enjoy the products featured on the central shelf. It also invites employees to use this area for moments of relaxation or a quick chat among colleagues. A versatile area in its use that wants to be a flexible space for people to meet.
Almost as an extension of the lounge, right next door, there is the pantry. We are invited to drink a Nespresso coffee and exchange ideas in the green corner, which transports us to an outdoor terrace.
The color green takes on an important role, that extends into the dining space. The pantry is confortable and is equipped and designed for people to get together for lunch or a coffee break, to eat and exchange of ideas. The green decorative wall elements also fulfill an acoustic function.
Work Area
The work area is divided into two zones: an open space area and an area with offices for teams.
In the open space room there is mostly a clean desk policy, facilitating the flexible model where anyone can work from the office when they wish. For some of the people who are daily at the office, there are fixed seats available, which allows for greater comfort and ease of working on a daily basis.
In this space we find two cabins that can be used for individual work or short meetings. Placed on one side of the open space, an individual cabin and one other with capacity for four people. Both ensure the sound comfort that the open space cannot give.
Maintaining the consistency in the neutrality of tones throughout the spaces, the colors have small highlights through furniture and decorative elements on the walls. Here the natural plants have special emphasis on shelves or even window sills, bringing color and a calm environment to the space.
The team offices exist throughout the office. In communication with the open space, we see two offices for more specific teams — Human Resources, Finance and Legal — which, due to the more sensitive information they handle and the type of functions, require closed spaces with some privacy, and also sound control. The glass walls decorated with orange transparent vinyl, allow separation and contact between people in the different spaces.
In the office we can also find an area with individual offices, next to the reception. Maintaining transparency with the glass walls with matte and decorative vinyl, that can be seen throughout the office, achieving greater privacy.
The two work areas are connected to each other by a common corridor, passing through the entrance and the common area. On one side of the corridor we follow the orange vinyl design. On the other side of the same corridor we find the locker cabinet provided — allowing collaborators to store their belongings, ensuring a minimalist and clean desk style — and we find the lounge.
Natural plants follow the path of the hallway and are also throughout the office, bringing the color of green into these spaces.
Meeting rooms
The meeting rooms were designed as flexible spaces that can easily be transformed in size and function. We highlight the largest meeting room, which, by opening a mobile wall that separates it from a smaller room, can be transformed into a room with a capacity from 12 to 16 people.
All rooms are equipped to enable remote meetings and to connect the various computer equipment, as well as having white vinyls on the walls for taking notes and drawing diagrams while sharing ideas.
Francisca Blanquet “I was missing coming back to work in the office and chatting with colleagues and having a cup of coffee. This is important to socialize with colleagues and create more connections between everyone. We are in a more comfortable and relaxed space and it allows more contact with each other.”
Diogo Rosa “With the renovation of this office space, the interpersonal relationships between co-workers are growing. The new common lounge area represents well what Colep Consumer Products is all about and also shows our products, which is important.”
