WeWork has already expanded its business lines from managing trendy workspaces for entrepreneurs to overseeing coliving facilities, a school, gyms, and more. Now, the company is gearing up to be a manufacturer of the glass and aluminum parts used in its signature interiors, with a 200,000-square-foot facility located 35 miles from its New York City headquarters. The company is seeking to hire at least 50 people to work in roles such as furnace operator and manufacturing director in Edison, New Jersey, per recent job postings on LinkedIn. The jobs appear aimed at creating a manufacturing operation from the ground up, including roles in technical operations, supply chain management, quality assurance, human resources, and finance. The new hires will work in a new facility with "state-of-the-art" equipment, the job postings said. The company's design aesthetic relies heavily on glass and aluminum to partition rooms. Moving into manufacturing represents a big pivot from WeWork's positioning as a tech company that does real estate. The build-out comes as WeWork's parent, The We Company, prepares to go public, a rocky process that has prompted questions about the company's leadership, conflicts of interest, and basic business model. The company has been trying to pivot to partnerships with landlords over signing traditional long-term leases, and it has also identified helping other companies design office spaces as a way it might help narrow wide losses. Read more: WeWork lays out its path to profitability — and most of its options involve slowing its breakneck growth A WeWork spokeswoman declined to comment, citing the company's quiet period ahead of its initial public offering. The company's pre-IPO filing last month flagged its drive to reduce costs by "vertical integration" — doing more in house: "Over the past several years, we have been able to achieve efficiencies in our capital expenditures through a combination of greater economies of scale resulting from the increasing size of our global network, vertical integration of our design and construction process and increased use of technology." A handful of major real-estate developers have tried to better control their supply chain and cut costs through owning manufacturing plants. Related Companies, which is developing the New York neighborhood Hudson Yards, built a wall manufacturer in Linwood, Pennsylvania. The practice is rare for flexible-office providers like WeWork, which has taken a more asset-intensive approach to its business than its peers. Seeking to own buildings rather than lease them, the company started raising a private-equity real-estate fund in 2017, eventually wrapping the fund into an investment platform called ARK this spring. The CEO of Knotel, a flexible-office provider that raised $400 million last month at a $1.3 billion valuation, said WeWork's move into manufacturing was unusual. Amol Sarva told Business Insider that "if you're in traditional real estate, it makes sense." A developer like Related, for example, can make its supply chain more efficient by owning a plant and overseeing production instead of buying materials. Read more: Mutual funds like Fidelity's famed Contrafund have slashed valuations on their WeWork stakes Sarva said he's focused on innovating in other parts of the design and construction business, which he said was ripe for a shake-up overall. "Every part of the office business has been untouched by time," he said. But instead of changing the manufacturing process as WeWork is trying to do, Sarva said he's focused on reducing the amount of waste generated by office build-outs.
WeWork is reportedly planning to manufacture the glass and aluminium parts used in its offices. The company has signed a lease on a 200,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Edison, New Jersey and is looking to hiring 50 or more people to work at the plant according to Business Insider citing job postings on Linkedin. A number of major real estate developers have established, or acquired manufacturing plants in an effort to cut costs and have greater control over supply chains. Co-workspace operator CommonGrounds, which has raised a total of $140m this year has an exclusive contract with Tecno SpA, a company that has developed a system of moveable office walls that dramatically reduces the time take and cost of renovating and remodelling office space.