The regenerative dessert company Cucos Orígens and the homemade spicy sauce company Guatllahot are two of the first firms to have settled at the Obrador de Bloc4BCN. Adriana Arutendé, creator of Cucos Orígens, states that what motivated them to join the project is its philosophy and the fact of being able to activate their dreams jointly. “It is an accessible reality, which allows balancing costs and strengthening a better vision of the world, far from mass industry,” emphasizes Arutendé, who also points out that the objective of having joined is “to create a strong brand that in the future generates jobs and sufficient security for many farmers to continue taking care of the land and feeding a conscious system.”In turn, Eduardo Jiménez, creator of Guatllahot, points out that they joined the Obrador “for a set of factors: having a shared workshop and guidance to get started, and being able to rely on other similar projects...”. The objective, he explains, “firstly is to see if the project can take off and function positively and then benefit from the necessary guidance to start and from the brotherhood with other projects and to meet other nearby agricultural producers.”
The Obrador of Bloc4BCN is already a reality
Bloc4BCN launches a new professional food production space designed to grow projects with added value and social and environmental impact
This June, the Obrador of Bloc4BCN has welcomed the first processing companies that have wanted to join the project. All of them will have at their disposal more than 100 m² equipped to test, promote, innovate or improve ideas related to food and committed to a quality, local and responsible food model, rooted in the territory and aligned with the values of the social and solidarity economy. “We want to offer them a shared workspace, fully equipped with industrial machinery and approved according to current regulations, and thus facilitate their leap to professional activity and their process of constitution as cooperatives,” says Oriol Rovira, coordinator of Bloc4BCN.
The short-term objective is to host 20 projects and entrepreneurs from the agri-food sector, “both initiatives that are in the launch phase and existing projects that seek to consolidate or experiment with new products or different production lines,” continues Rovira, who emphasizes that the project seeks “a very clear profile; projects with a transformative vocation”. The coordinator of Bloc4BCN highlights that they must be companies “that actively integrate environmental sustainability criteria, that radically bet on local products and that prioritize the use of organic raw materials”.
Connection with the Bloc4BCN ecosystem
One of the distinctive features of l’Obrador is its connection with the Bloc4BCN ecosystem, which allows new projects to access services for guidance, training, advice, financing, and, where appropriate, support in the establishment of the cooperative. In Rovira's opinion, it is "absolutely key to making viable the ideas of people who want to use l’Obrador". And making them viable, he clarifies, "means transforming a recipe or a gastronomic idea into an economically sustainable activity over time: defining correct cost structures, creating financial viability plans, finding ethical financing, and ensuring compliance with legal and sanitary regulations". All this materializes thanks to the personalized support from the Ateneu Cooperatiu de Barcelona, Coòpolis, and the managing company Espai Ambiental, which guide projects from the initial idea to their consolidation. The project is also studying the fit with Barcelona Activa for some training.
Another of the project's aims is to combat food waste. In fact, they estimate that between 2026 and 2027, up to 50,000 kg of wasted food will be rescued. And l’Obrador is not conceived as a simple rental kitchen, but as a space for conscious transformation.
From Bloc4BCN, a project financed by the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya, they contribute to the socioeconomic development and transformation of Barcelona and Catalonia. To make this purpose a reality, they offer comprehensive support services for cooperativism: from project incubation and acceleration to business support, training, talent attraction, and internationalization.Since its establishment two years ago, more than 40 projects and over 200 people leading them have passed through. Its coordinator, Oriol Rovira, highlights the transition from “being a new infrastructure to a hub of activity” which, by the end of 2025, had hosted nearly 3,000 activities, including training sessions, talks, and events, collectively mobilizing over 21,500 people. However, one of the most significant achievements has been the financial advisory service, as between 2024 and 2025, 224 entities were supported and 19.8 million euros were mobilized.
