Cobra Motorcycles CEO Living A Dream, Growing in a Niche Market
Some people spend their entire lives trying to find the right career. That isn’t the case for Sean Hilbert. Even in high school, the 41-year-old knew he wanted to open his own business and be an entrepreneur.
As the CEO and one of several owners of Cobra Motorcycles, Hilbert is living that dream today. Located in Hillsdale, Cobra produces premium race-ready mini motocross bikes for youth riders. The company, which employs 35, is the only one of its kind in the U.S.
“We specialize in the youth competition market, which is a niche within a niche within a niche," Hilbert said.
That is a small market – Cobra’s two biggest competitors are located in Austria and Italy – but Hilbert says youth motocross racing has its share of enthusiasts.
“It’s kind of one of those sleeper sports – there are a lot more people involved than you might think,” he said.
A former youth motocross rider himself, Hilbert jumped at the chance to get involved with Cobra, which opened in 1993, when its original owners sold it in 2003. He had been working at Ford Motor Co. at the time.
“I’ve had this romantic notion with entrepreneurism my entire life,” Hilbert said. “Everything I’ve done in my professional life has been aimed at that, and I’ve wanted to design and build motorcycles since high school, so this was the perfect opportunity for me.”
Offering six different products – four two-wheelers and two four-wheelers – Cobra specializes in motocross racing bikes for riders ages 6 - 12.
“Our products are not the kind you buy to take up north,” Hilbert says. “These are for serious riders only.”
Over the past four years, the company has sold between 1,200 and 1,500 bikes per year. Close to 20 percent of those are exported, mainly to Latin American countries like Ecuador and Mexico. Cobra also supports some of the best youth motocross racers in the world, providing them with everything from bikes to lubricants to riding accessories.
Moved from Cleveland
In 2004, shortly after acquiring the company, Hilbert and his partners moved Cobra from Cleveland to Hillsdale.
They chose to relocate to the Great Lakes State because “it was home for many of us, and we knew that there was a strong manufacturing base here from the standpoint of infrastructure and workforce,” Hilbert says. “We knew that there were some great resources at some of the research universities, namely Michigan State and U of M, that were aimed in our direction and that we could leverage. And we knew there was a good supply base, which has allowed us to resource and home-source a lot of components from around the world back to Michigan, mainly because of the currency issues in Europe and our desire to keep things closer to home.”
The state of Michigan also sweetened the deal, offering training funds as well as state tax credits, the latter of which were based upon the premise that Cobra hire more Michigan-based employees each year. The city of Hillsdale helped out, too, by providing tax abatements on equipment so the company was not penalized for moving equipment across state lines.
The decision to move the company to Michigan has been a good one for a number of reasons, Hilbert says.
“We’ve been able to hire some really good folks, I’d say the best the company has ever seen. With what’s available talent-wise and what’s available in terms of supply-base, we couldn’t be happier.”
Cobra’s move here has been a positive one for the state, too. Along with bringing new jobs and taking over a vacant building, half of the 200 companies that make up Cobra’s global supply chain are located in Michigan.
Although most of Cobra’s profits have been reinvested back into the company since they took over, Hilbert and his six partners have something else to be happy about: sales have increased 300 percent since they took the helm four years ago. This year, revenue should be about $5 million, Hilbert said.
Hilbert attributes the success to Cobra’s narrow focus. “The company is set up to totally focus on this market, and it allows us to put all of our concentration and use all of our marketing dollars into the relatively small market that we are in.” Hilbert says this year will be one of reflection and improvement for the small business.
“We need to make sure we are focusing on the markets we are serving and serving them really well,” he says. “It’s a very tough market, both on the product size and customer service side. There will be a lot more opportunity for growth, a lot more products and a lot of places around the world that we’ll be looking to grow the company in the future.”
– By Jaime Pfeffer, Daily Dash contributing writer
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Some people spend their entire lives trying to find the right career. That isn’t the case for Sean Hilbert. Even in high school, the 41-year-old knew he wanted to open his own business and be an entrepreneur. 
