The accessory housing startup founded in 2022 by the co-founder of Airbnb announced this week that it will bring manufacturing in-house.
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Samara, the accessory housing startup launched in 2022 by the co-founder of Airbnb, announced this week that it is bringing its manufacturing operations in-house.
The company announced the purchase of a factory in Mexicali, Mexico, on the U.S. border. Samara’s founders say bringing manufacturing in-house will help the startup shorten lead times, better control quality standards and help it meet California’s growing demand for ADUs.
“With the acquisition of our facility, I am proud that Samara can now combine its world-class design and engineering capabilities, superior customer experience and in-house manufacturing capabilities,” said CEO Mike McNamara. ——Founder of Airbnb.
Samara’s origins were an internal project launched by Airbnb in 2016, the result of an effort by the company’s in-house innovation team to simplify the experience of designing, buying and building a home. The company saw the potential for the project to succeed as an independent business and spun it out, with Airbnb taking a minority stake.
The company aims to take advantage of California’s lax regulations on ADUs, which have been proposed as a potential solution to the state’s severe housing shortage as their popularity grows. Samara said the number of ADU license applications increased nearly 19 times between 2016 and 2022. The company’s first model is called the “Backyard,” and is available in one-, two-bedroom and studio models.
“Our homes are the center of our lives. On average, most Californians have lived in their homes for 17 years,” McNamara said. “Backyards are a powerful tool that can help people get more mileage from their properties without the tax implications and hassle of renovations.”
The 150,000-square-foot facility in Mexicali will allow the company to build manufactured homes from start to finish, then load them onto trucks and ship them directly to customers’ homes. While most companies outsource manufacturing due to the challenges such a large operation can bring, Samara leadership said they believe the challenge is worth it for better quality control and faster delivery times. .
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