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NEW DELHI: GPS-enabled watches, marine, automobile, and aviation equipment maker Garmin aims to grow its share in India matching with the levels in some of its best-performing markets in the Asian and European regions, said a senior executive of the US-based company.
“India relatively has not been our best-performing market. We feel that there is a huge opportunity in India to improve and grow our market share to the levels that we see in other Asian countries, and in Europe where we are very strong, as well as, the Middle East and particularly North America,” Tim Spurling, General Manager, Emerging Markets – Central Asia, Middle East & Africa (CAMEA), Garmin International, told ETTelecom in an interview.
Citing market research, Spurling said India is poised to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2030 and the middle class is growing, as well as, the disposable income and the 1.45-billion population presents a “very big opportunity” for Garmin.
“At the moment, our market share is pretty low in comparison to other countries, and that’s something we certainly want to need to improve,” Spurling said.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed company does not disclose country-specific data.
To this extent, the Kansas-headquartered firm in October 2023 streamlined its retail operations by appointing AMIT International Group (AIG) as the sole exclusive national distributor for Garmin’s Fitness, Outdoor, and Marine category products.
Garmin’s Fitness segment revenue increased by 28% to $428 million, driven by wearables, while Outdoor segment revenue fell 2% to $440 million, Aviation revenue remained flat at $218 million, and Marine segment revenue increased 26% to $273 million in Q2 2024. The company follows the January to December financial year.
“We have had a bit of a restructure over the last year in terms of our channel infrastructure. We used to have a Garmin office in India, and we used to work with various distributors. Beginning Q4 last calendar year, we have now started working with an existing distributor and passed over the fitness and the wearables business to them as well,” Spurling said.
As a result of the restructuring exercise, Garmin shut down its India office and offered some local staff roles in the new setup. Its Indian employees now report to AIG, which in return, reports to Garmin’s head office.
The company has also seen the exit of its key India executives before restructuring, including Garmin India’s country head Yeshudas Pillai who joined Casio India as the Assistant General Manager –Timepiece in July 2023, and Ali Rizvi, Director of Garmin India, who is the Vice President of Marketing at MapMyIndia, according to LinkedIn profiles of the executives.
“One of the key challenges we have faced in the past was the pricing for the online channel versus bricks-and-mortar stores,” said Spurling. “We have made substantial efforts to make sure that there is a level playing field for all our retail partners to ensure that selling Garmin for them is profitable.”
Garmin, whose watches are priced from Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 and above, competes with Samsung and Apple’s offerings. The executive said Garmin is working with AIG to offer various payment plans to buyers to make its products further affordable.
Further, Garmin is actively focusing on digital health, wearable payments, and satellite communication technologies in India to increase the competitiveness of its products, according to Juha Villanen, Head of B2B & Partnerships for EMEA Emerging Markets and India.
“Garmin Health is our primary focus in the short term in India now. Garmin Pay will take as long as the central bank of India needs, while satellite communication will be majorly in certain governmental specialised use cases such as for SOS and emergency communications. We will also be seeing them hopefully in India soon as well,” Villanen said.
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