Garmin has announced fourth quarter results for the period ended 25 December 2010. The quarterly results show a 15% year on year gain for Garmin’s Outdoor/Fitness business unit.
This went some way to offset the declines in its Automotive/Mobile segment revenue, which decreased 31% in the quarter.
Total revenue in Q4 2010 was US$838 million, down 21% from US$1.059 billion in fourth quarter 2009 and impacted by the poor performance in the Automotive/Mobile area. Garmin’s Outdoor/Fitness segment revenue increased 15% to US$171 million.
Growth was also experienced in its Aviation (+10%) and Marine (+9%) business groups.
Having achieved significant full year revenue and operating income growth in outdoor/fitness, marine and aviation – these growth segments generated 61% of Garmin’s total operating income in 2010.
“While 2010 represented a year of adversity for our PND (personal navigation device) business and our handset initiative, we exit the year with a growing presence in outdoor/fitness, aviation, marine and auto OEM that give us confidence in the long?term outlook for Garmin,” said Dr Min Kao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Garmin.
“Strong revenue and operating income performance in these segments was a highlight for the year and a foundation on which we hope to grow. The business generated free cash flow of US$738 million which further strengthened our debt?free balance sheet and afforded us the opportunity to return significant value to shareholders in 2010 through a dividend and share repurchases.
“Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, we will report the financial results of the outdoor and fitness segments separately. We are excited about the innovative products that we will be delivering in both the outdoor and fitness segments this year.”
Kao added, “In the fitness category, we are well positioned as the leader in the GPS?enabled running market offering products designed to meet the needs of both the elite athlete and the value?conscious runner or cyclist.
“Our fitness product development pipeline is full of exciting offerings that will be announced during the course of the year.”
