Ten years ago this spring, a new brand entered the garden machinery market and fast became established as one of the leading players, rapidly becoming the go-to brand of choice for many gardeners across the UK.
The brand was launched by Nottingham-based, Henton & Chattell, one of the largest distributors of garden machinery in the UK with more than 1,500 dealerships across the country.
Founded in 1931, the Henton & Chattell team used its unique market insight garnered from more than 80 years of being in the industry and knowing customer demands, to launch its own brand: Cobra.
Now, to celebrate the brand’s 10th birthday, Cobra is launching perhaps its biggest innovation yet with the introduction of its new ride-on lawn mowers this spring. This significant investment for Cobra really marks the next chapter for the brand. The ride-on mower range features eight models, aimed at helping those with larger lawns to mow with ease and comfort, at an affordable price.
Wanting to bring variety and an extensive range from day to always give customers the ideal solution no matter what size garden they had or task they were tackling, Cobra launched with a bang and an impressive 46 models from day one.
The Cobra range started with the electric GTRM range, which is still a key seller to this day. Followed shortly by the 2-stroke powered brushcutters, hedge trimmers and chainsaws. Instead of big seasonal launches, Cobra instead chose to take a continual approach to new product development and R&D and new products are regularly introduced to the range across all product categories and the range now consists of a staggering 160 products. Staying true to its lawncare specialism roots, 46% of these are lawnmowers – making Cobra the largest powered lawnmower brand in the UK.
Electric handheld machinery was one of the first category expansions in 2014, with hedgetrimmers, leaf blowers and grass strimmers being launched.
A momentous key product development for Cobra was the launch of its battery mower range in 2015, with the MX4140V leading the way, which was followed soon after by the battery handhold range of 24-volt products in 2016 and 40-volt in 2017. The interchangeable battery technology enables gardeners and customers loyal to the Cobra brand, to have battery-powered hedge trimmers, blowers, chainsaws and mowers, all powered by one battery – alleviating the need for petrol power or electric cables.
Over time, the range has continued to expand and now, alongside Cobra’s extensive offering of wider lawncare products such as robotic mowers, scarifiers and aerators, the range also features pressure washers, generators, shredders, cultivators, chippers, multitools and brushcutters.
Notable highlights in the Cobra journey include its limited-edition pink lawnmower that was launched in partnership with Breast Cancer Now in 2019 and has raised more than £20,000 for the charity. Alongside that, Cobra products have received wide recognition and accolades with multiple awards, “best buy” features and endorsements.
Discussing the brand’s growth and success, managing director of Cobra, Peter Chaloner commented: “We are so thrilled with the success of Cobra over the past 10 years, the response and demand from customers has been incredible. We’re really excited about the next chapter with the new ride-on tractors and have lots more product development in the pipeline for the future too.”
“We’ve seen across our nationwide dealer network of Cobra stockists that the demand is very positive and we’re committed to bringing even more products to our dealers.We are 100% focused on supporting our dealers.”
