(Bloomberg) -- Mark Dixon is the founder and chief executive officer of IWG Plc., an office space provider that owns coworking brands like Regus and Spaces. Dixon founded the company in 1989, more than two decades before WeWork Inc. catapulted the concept into public consciousness. But just as WeWork Inc. entered bankruptcy, IWG posted record revenue for the first half of this year. IWG is now eyeing some of its collapsed peer’s locations as more long-term office leases expire and hybrid work plans stick, with companies calling workers back more days each week. (Responses have been edited and condensed.)

Tell me about some of the trends you’ve noticed this year with the hybrid work conversation.

It's a massive change. People underestimate the change, but it's like reversing the flow of a river. The speed of adoption is governed around your ability to get rid of your leases. That picks up in years to come, because you've got an average of about a five-year cycle. The momentum is picking up and we’re adding a huge number of locations.  In three or four years time, you're going to have to explain why it is that you commute, not why you aren’t going back. 

And looks like WeWork's bankruptcy has provided more opportunity for expansion.

It's a tiny opportunity. It's a huge, growing industry — there will be us and there will be others. For us, it’s more about not being bracketed with them. We're in the same general area, but we’re nothing like them. With the restructure, if they come out the other end much smaller and more healthy, that would be good. Because it’s been a distraction: a distraction that's affected our share price. It affects every conversation I have. 

How would you describe the difference between your business model and WeWork’s?

We’re in 120 countries. We do everything from rural to suburbs to the central business districts. So that's much bigger and much deeper into the market. We also get about a third of our revenues from services. For example, if you wanted to open your business in Thailand tomorrow, we could help you do that. We do basic things, like we can supply partners, hardware. If you hire someone in Minnesota, they turn up, everything's in and they can start working immediately. It's adding value and making it very efficient for the company.

What kind of services have you seen strongest demand for that surprised you?

Onboarding packages, these welcome boxes we do on behalf of companies. [T-shirt, water bottle], that sort of thing. Just simple stuff. It’s like a $60 package. But it says “welcome.” It’s about human beings' sense of belonging. You know, “I’ve thought about you.”  And that comes back to productivity: With very small investments done consistently you get so much more out of people. Your key cost is people, so if you can get a little more productivity from them because they're happier and they feel looked after — that's really what both companies and individuals are looking for.

How has the idea of co-working evolved from when you first started in 1989?

It's evolved beyond all recognition. The idea I had at the beginning was that real estate was really difficult for companies. That’s still the same today: very expensive, long leases, loads of lawyers. There was so much demand, even then, pre-internet, because you were making it easy to rent office space. And now technology has made it even easier. The frustrating thing is it's taken quite a long time, 35 years. I was a bit ahead of my time. But the market's now gotten to a point where people get it. Still, we always made cash. So we've grown a bit slower than [WeWork] — but better to be there at the end in shape. 

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