Company Gains Share In Aviation, Other Segments

It's good to be Garmin right now. Fresh from its successful introduction of its new Synthetic Vision Technology in early April at Lakeland, on Wednesday the Olathe, KS-based avionics and personal navigation device manufacturer reported a record first quarter for 2008.

The company reported total revenue of $664 million, a 35-percent increase over Q1 2007.

While Garmin noted a healthy 19 percent increase to aviation segment revenue -- fueled by continued popularity of its G1000 glass panel avionics suite, and its line of its portable-and-panel-mounted GPS units -- the av sector actually saw the slowest growth rate among Garmin's offerings. Mobile and automotive segment revenue gained 43 percent, with marine segment revenue increasing 30 percent.

"We are pleased with our performance in the first quarter, particularly given the general slowdown in the global economy," said Dr. Min Kao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Demand for our automotive/mobile products continued beyond the traditionally strong fourth quarter holiday season, with another quarter of robust triple-digit growth. While the first quarter is typically our slowest quarter, we were nonetheless able to achieve healthy growth in each of our business segments and each geographic area."

Full details of Garmin's Q1 results are available at the FMI link below.

FMI: www.garmin.com