Garmin on Wednesday introduced its new leadership and has announced expansion plans in India. The U.S.-based precision engineering company appointed Yeshudas Pillai as the country head of its India operations.
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“I am excited to join the Garmin team and accelerate its growth in India. I look forward to working with the Garmin global leadership team and providing strategic impetus to strengthening the company’s foothold in India,” said Yeshudas Pillai, Country Head, Garmin India.
The company has only three Garmin brand stores in Delhi, Bangalore, and Pune to showcase its exclusive smartwatch collection. To expand, Garmin now aims to add seven new brand stores in the country by 2023. These stores will also work as service collection points.
Garmin plays here in the $300-$400 price bracket and it wants to continue its focus in this segment. The smartwatch maker has achieved 32% year-on-year growth in India till Q3 2022. Garmin’s Venu series remains the key driver of growth for the brand in India. The Venu series has registered 65% growth in the country till Q3 2022. Garmin has also achieved 40% growth online.
“We have seen a growth in the preference for mid high range ($300 and above) smartwatches over the last couple of years in India. Looking at this trend, we are bullish on the premium segment and plan to expand our offerings,” said Sky Chen, Regional Director, South-East Asia & India.
Regarding competition with the newly launched Apple Watch Ultra, Garmin believes that it will create more awareness in the $900 category which people weren’t talking about.
The company said, “We have all those features already available in Epix and Fenix series but with more battery life.”
The COVID-19 era, especially 2021, proved fruitful for Garmin as it raised close to $5 billion in revenue that year. The gross profit for the company grew by 58%.
“We invest 17% of our revenue back into R&D in order to bring new products,” Mr. Chen added.
Garmin claims to have sold 252 million devices worldwide till now.
