BIG news from Capita snowboards!
Some of you may be aware that the Elan’s OEM Snowboard Factory in Furnitz, Austria declared bankruptcy and shut up shop in March this year. This was a major blow for many brands manufactured there - including Arbor, Bataleon, Capita, Dinosaurs Will Die, Lobster, and Rome - who were left urgently looking for a new manufacturing base. Arbour moved production to the new SWS Snowboard Factory in Dubai (yeah, you read that correctly!), Bataleon and Lobster moved to the SBF factory in China (the factory that produces Switchback bindings). while Rome moved to Austria’s awesome GST SnowboardFactory (they do DC, Stepchild, Flow, Niche, Drake, Jones, and YES.). Capita hooked up with GST for limited production in the short term, while exploring their long term options.
Well, it looks like Capita are done with exploring their options, as they recently purchased the Elan factory! Here’s the official press release from CAPiTA:
CAPiTA announced today it has assumed control of the Elan snowboard factory in Furnitz, Austria. CAPiTA will continue to produce snowboards at the renowned Austrian factory under its own management utilizing the technology, expertise and talents that made it one of the premier snowboard manufacturing facilities in the world over the last twenty five years.
At an April 12, 2013 insolvency hearing, the CAPiTA ownership group filing under the Austrian name C4future GmbH was granted legal right to assume control of the factory. Facility control was obtained April 15 and the entire factory is again operational producing CAPiTA snowboards at this time.
Former Elan Austria CEO and Technical Director Michael Kollman brings eighteen years of manufacturing experience at the facility to the CAPiTA team as Director of Production. Fifty highly skilled factory operatives have also been retained. CAPiTA President Blue Montgomery commented, “This is a milestone in regard to our long held vision of vertical integration and production control. Our first commitment is ensuring our ability to deliver our 2013/14 line, consistent with our samples and on schedule, with the high quality standards that people expect of our snowboards. We’ve produced at this factory for ten years. We know the facility, technology and team very well and we’re sure of our ability to deliver our best lineup of boards to date.”
This is far bigger news than simply Capita being able to meet their production runs for the upcoming season and beyond. What it means is that Capita now assumes sole control of an R&D facility to rival the best in the world. The turnaround from idea, to working prototype, to production can be extremely fast as they now have total control - and they’ve got some damn fine mountains nearby for testing!
Expect big things from Capita in future seasons.
wow, any idea what specifics lead to the factory declaring bankruptcy in the first place? anyway, great news for capita - thanks chucky
indoor survival all day, love my board!
yeah i think i might try and get a Capita board this season, i had the stair master a couple of years ago and loved it! all depends on the cash i have tho lol
I have a Greenmachine from a few years back and I’m not the biggest fan. Would love to give them another go (think Lano might give me a lend for a few hours?) since the board wasn’t what I was looking for, it’s bad to label the whole brand 
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U can have it anytime u want TJ