Garmin Ltd has announced its results for the fiscal quarter ended 30 March 2013. The company has reported that total Q1 2013 revenue reached US$532 million, down 4% year on year from US$557 million in the first quarter of 2012.
Garmin’s Automotive/Mobile business segment (its largest overall business unit) took the biggest hit, with sales down 10% year on year. Across the board, all geographies posted revenue declines in the period. For the most part, this translated into single digit declines; although Asia Pacific (APAC) revenue was down 10%.
A more positive ray of light again came from Garmin’s Fitness business unit. Similar to the situation reported in 2012, the Fitness division was one of few areas to generate revenue gains for the company. Garmin’s Fitness segment revenue increased 2% to US$72 million in Q1 2013.
It should, however, be noted that – in its recent Q1 earnings release – Garmin points to a number of recent business highlights; yet none of these reference new product development or other initiatives in the company’s Fitness division.
Giving an executive overview, Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said “The first quarter of 2013 proved to be challenging, much as we had anticipated when providing guidance in February.
“Because we expected revenues to decline, we entered the year cognizant of the need to closely manage expenses which we accomplished. Both advertising and selling, general and administrative expenses declined year-over-year. Research and development expense increased as we remain committed to future innovation that can deliver long-term growth in both consumer and OEM markets.”
He continued, “The fitness segment posted revenue growth of 2% in the quarter as we compared against strong initial shipments of the Forerunner 910XT, which launched in first quarter of 2012 and contributed to 26% growth in the year ago quarter.
“Even with the difficult comparable, we were pleased to see the strong reception by the cycling community to our Edge 510 and 810 which began to ship in the quarter. In addition, consumers continue to gravitate to our Forerunner 10, capturing a new subset of the running market.”
