PRESS RELEASE
5th February 2018
COBRA International, Chonburi, Thailand. 2018 will be a year of celebrations for COBRA International Co. Ltd. (COBRA). The leading manufacturer of composite Water Sports products, and a globally respected supplier of Strong, Light and Beautiful composites for the Automotive, Architectural, Transportation, Marine and Luxury markets, will celebrate its 40th Year anniversary throughout 2018.
The company will celebrate this major milestone at JEC World 2018. They will also host a series of internal and external initiatives throughout the year, including the Composites Asia 2018 Conference in June, and the publishing of an in-depth report covering its 40 Key Projects and 40 Key People that were integral to the company’s tremendous growth.
At JEC World, COBRA (Stand E28, Hall 6) will highlight a 40-year timeline showing its key milestones, as well as displaying exhibits that demonstrate its full range of technologies and capabilities. These include an example of the latest technology in hydro foiling electric surfboards, a range of premium Automotive components and architectural composite panels with decorative finishes.
The COBRA story began in the garage of a house in central Bangkok in March 1978 when Vorapant Chotikapanich, one of the founders and current company chairman, began building windsurf boards for the Windglider brand. The COBRA brand appeared a few years later, with the legendary King Cobra board putting COBRA on the world map as a manufacturer of lightweight advanced composite windsurfing boards.
17 years later, the company had grown significantly and moved their focus to supplying large OEM’s with composite sandwich water sports equipment and by 1999, COBRA had become the leading manufacturer of windsurf boards with an 80% world market share.
In 2006, with a growing reputation for the supply of high quality composite components and exceptional finishing craftsmanship, COBRA successfully launched its Automotive business, with COBRA Advanced Composites (CAC) beginning to supply lightweight serial carbon fibre parts to premium Automotive and Motorcycle brands.
Today, COBRA, with its ongoing investment in research and development and its state of the art 100,000m2 production facilities (including a multimillion baht finishing plant that is setting the standards for Automotive composites in both Europe and Asia) provides a One-Stop Shop for the serial production of Strong, Light and Beautiful composite products. As a result, the company is now recognized as the world’s leading manufacturer of composite water sports products and a key global supplier of composites components into the Automotive, Architectural, Transportation, Marine and Luxury sectors.
Comment’s Danu Chotikapanich, CEO, COBRA: ‘This is an outstanding achievement of which we are very proud. From a small supplier of our own brand windsurf boards, we have grown to be the leading manufacturer of boards for all water sports markets and a globally respected supplier of Strong, Light and Beautiful composites. We are very much looking forward to the next 40 years and beyond!’
