Arbor Moves Production To Elan

Arbor announced it is moving production of its snowboards from GST in northern Austria to Elan’s factory in the heart of the Austrian Alps. TWBiz spoke with Arbor Co-founder Bob Carlson this morning about the move and he’s super excited about Elan’s capabilities, young design and engineering snowboarder crew. Carlson believes their passion and creativity will help take Arbor’s technology to the next level. The move is already well under way and Arbor decks will be rolling off Elan’s presses beginning with 2010 samples.

According to the press release:

The decision was motivated by Arbor’s need to partner with the most advanced snowboard factory available. Doing so allows the company to manage an increasingly complicated use of its organic materials and eco-technologies. Only in Austria has the company found the know-how, attention to detail, advanced technologies, and unmatched material and sourcing knowledge required to create an Arbor. After careful analysis of all options, Arbor selected Elan as the best choice to handle its growing production needs.

“Elan excels at the critical development and construction capabilities that Arbor needs in order to execute on our designs,” said Bob Carlson, Arbor’s President and Co-founder. “This level of production performance is driven by the amount of investment that has been infused into Elan over the years and the leadership of Michael Kollmann, Elan Austria’s President, and the team he’s built,”

In the end, it was Elan’s management team that stood out above all else, solidifying Arbor’s decision. “I needed a factory staffed with energetic, proactive individuals. At Elan, everyone from the President, right on through the members of the R&D, product management, quality control, and graphics departments have the experience, education, motivation, and love for snowboarding that Arbor needs in order to deliver successful design progression well into the future,” said Carlson.

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