More than an office
We have big plans! The rapid growth of recent years has meant that our old office buildings in Dortmund no longer offered enough space. For our new home, only a location that simultaneously reflects our history and our vision came into question from the very beginning. That’s exactly what we found on the Innovation Campus around the former Opel administration building. The decisive factors for the decision to move to Bochum were the architecture and the flair of the O-Werk. The new home should suit us as a company and not be a soulless, interchangeable new building at any old location. The management was looking for a building that combines history and digital innovation. A building that brings together babymarkt’s regional roots and cosmopolitanism.
Plenty of room for personality and our team
With the move to the O-Werk in Bochum, we can finally unite all employees at one location again and thus promote communication throughout the company. Because everyone knows that the closer you get together, the greater the cohesion and motivation in the entire team. Most of the employees now work together under one roof on a total of 7,000 m². We control all our global activities from the heart of the Ruhr region. Great things are created here – with us!
rößer wird der Zusammenhalt und die Motivation im gesamten Team. Auf insgesamt 7.000 m² arbeitet mittlerweile ein Großteil der Mitarbeiter unter einem Dach zusammen. All unsere globalen Aktivitäten steuern wir aus dem Herzen des Ruhrgebiets. Hier entsteht Großes – mit uns!
We are writing a new chapter in the identity of the Ruhr region: The Ruhr 3.0. After coal and industry, we are showing the way into the future as a digital company.“
On the three upper floors of the O-Werk, generously proportioned, loft-like offices with industrial charm promote continuous exchange and short decision-making paths. To allow our thoughts and ideas to develop freely, we have opted for an open space concept. The Activity Based Working concept complements the Open Space structure: the most suitable working environment is created for every requirement. Numerous think tanks offer quiet zones as an alternative to the open office spaces, while workspaces and meeting points invite creative work, teamwork and relaxation.
Mottos as a sign of our corporate culture
We wouldn’t be babymarkt if our unique corporate culture wasn’t reflected in our new offices. With great attention to detail, the design combines features of the region with special features of the corporate culture and breathes personality into our new home. The special feature: each floor is immersed in a motto that reflects our core competencies and our mindset in different ways.
Second floor: Opel
Since we are in the former Opel administration building, a floor entirely dedicated to lightning cannot be missing. Here, in the heart of the building, history comes alive: Old car doors are transformed into room dividers, old tyres into chairs and swings. But as if that weren’t cool enough, an old Opel can’t be missing either – as a highlight, the body of a baby-blue Opel Kadett adorns the meeting points on this floor. By the way, both with a special feature: the front headlights can actually be switched on. And there’s a fridge hidden in the boot! So the next after-work beer is definitely secured and tastes twice as good.
Every conference and project room on the floor is dedicated to a special car model. Diplomat, Kapitän, Kadett, Rekord and Manta are just as iconic as we are and are experiencing golden times again.
In this way, the history and future of the O-Werk become one, because instead of remaining in the past, this floor forms the foundation of timeless values that continue on their way towards the future and success on the upper floors.
Third floor: ZEIT X REISE
Under the motto “Time X Journey”, the middle floor sees itself as a visual path from the mining culture of the Ruhr region to its pioneering spirit to digital future companies. babymarkt, that is discovererism, development, progress and departure – just like the Ruhr region. The 117-metre-long floor is transformed into a living timeline, starting with the winding towers of the mining industry and continuing through our present to a glimpse of the future, a vision called babymarkt.
On the floor we find the meeting rooms Kang, Marty and Voyager – named after well-known time travellers. The highly intelligent Kang comes from the Marvel universe, where he discovers and conquers as a time traveller – also thanks to his indomitable will. By Marty, of course, we mean none other than Marty McFly from the cult film “Back to the Future”. The DeLorean and the famous time machine are not to be missed! By the way, it is set to the time when we sold our first product online. Voyager is probably one of the most famous spaceships par excellence and an integral part of the Star Trek universe in the 24th century. Its real-world counterpart, meanwhile, is tirelessly exploring the outer planetary system and interstellar space – so the view into the future is doubly assured.
The Meeting Points continue the theme of Time X Journey. At Meeting Point Nobel, pictures of Nobel Prize winners and symbols of technical and inventive brilliance embody our internationality and innovative spirit, as each of our international shops has made a contribution to this. Zeche – how could it be otherwise? – stands like nothing else for the Ruhr region and, with the German Mining Museum, also emphasises our new home in Bochum, in the here and now.
A small but fine detail is the “X”. The X doesn’t just stand for the connection between time and travel, because then a & would have served this purpose just as well. The X is the modern symbol for cooperation, especially known in the social media sector to indicate a creative connection. The cooperation results in more than the sum of its individual parts, namely its product – familiar to everyone from looking at a pocket calculator. Here, in the sign of a time X journey, creativity, agility and digitalisation are multiplied. X is also one of our most significant projects, and so this X is incidentally the natural connection to our next floor.
Fourth floor: MARVEL
The top floor is the stuff of legends: Here, everything revolves around the heroic universe of Marvel. How could it be any different at babymarkt? Our strength, agility and cross-team cooperation with a view beyond our own world can be found here in the finest Marvel style. And of course our daring! We stick together and are not afraid to explore new, uncharted territory together – this applies equally to our global expansion and to new worlds in e-commerce that we are conquering from Bochum.
On this floor are the Magneto and Phoenix conference rooms and the Punisher project room, inspired by groundbreaking projects in our company’s history. The highlights here are clearly the meeting points! In the north wing, it is dedicated to the entire cosmos of Marvel comics. An incredible amount of attention to detail is visible here. The furniture is a colourful mix, reminiscent of the school for young talents from the X-Men. The wall panelling shows numerous Marvel comics, which are turned into unique eye-catchers by the light from pendant lamps in the comic look.
Harder than steel and thus a super symbol for us is the model for the second Meeting Point: Wolverine! We find the tough mutant in posters with comic covers on a white brick wall. Fine metal strands on stools and lamps pick up Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton. Wolverine’s characteristic claws are of course a must and are guaranteed to make the heart of every fan beat faster.
Functionality meets team spirit
Thought out down to the smallest detail, this synthesis of the arts proves to be the new home of the impulse provider babymarkt. An important component of the space concept are special rooms that promote personal exchange among colleagues and strengthen the “we” feeling.
Welcome lounge
Already in the entrance area on the second floor it becomes clear: we are not just anyone. We are the largest online shop for baby and toddler supplies in Germany. The lounge furniture made of pallets fits like a glove. Nevertheless, the chic lounge sofas and tables in the upcycling trend are not lacking in comfort, thanks to cosy upholstery on the seat and backrest.
Meeting points
There are two meeting points on each floor – a great mix of relaxed workplace and chill-out zone for creative recharging. All are equipped with a kitchenette including coffee machine, microwaves, dishwasher and refrigerator as well as a fizzy drink dispenser.
Club Lounge
Right in the centre of our new home, an absolute highlight awaits us: the babymarkt Club Lounge. In this semi-circular room, everything revolves around the team, because the Club Lounge is the perfect meeting place from coffee to lunch break to after-work drinks. The sense of community is the focus in the Club Lounge: the seating groups invite you to chat in a relaxed atmosphere. The glass bar gives the open space individual club vibes and the different heights of the tables with matching bar stools and stylish chairs underline this feeling. Here it’s all about one thing: our well-being!
Event kitchen
The second highlight to strengthen our cohesion is clearly the event kitchen on the second floor. With cooking surfaces that look into the room and merge into a bar, teamwork of a different kind is called for here: wield the wooden spoon together and devour the delicacies together afterwards! For this purpose, there is a stately table in the event kitchen. A glass plate is placed on pallets, which easily offers space for sixteen colleagues. In addition, there are coffee house tables for smaller groups in the event kitchen. Pallettes decorate the back wall for more cosiness and individuality.
Sports room
As the fittest company, it was high time we had our own sports room. With two cross trainers, two treadmills, two pull-up stations, a rowing machine, a sling trainer, a weight station and a dumbbell station, the sports room is ideal for working out in between or after work and also leaves room for the odd strength test. Of course, we’ve also thought of the afterwards, because thanks to the showers on each floor, we always get to work fresh. In addition to the sports room, there are several table football tables and a table tennis table for fun and games on the various floors.
