Garmin Sets Up Shop in Detroit

Seeing first hand that there's no better place to do business than in the city that has become a century ago the cradle of automobiles for the masses, telematics solution specialist Garmin announced this week its decision to move some of its business closer to the big names on the market, by opening a new office in Detroit.

Set to focus mostly on OEM sales, marketing, and engineering, the new Garmin office is more than that. It includes offices and vehicle preparation facilities for product design, development and demonstration, so that the Big Three can know what they'll get themselves into should they go the Garmin way.

The new Detroit office will be headed by Garmin International vice president Matthew Munn. Munn will be in charge with making the brand known to the local manufacturers and all the OEM partners.

“This new office will expand our presence in the Detroit area and provide our present and future OEM customers with immediate, on-the-ground service,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin president.

“Garmin’s broad strengths and capabilities, including vertical integration, user interface design, track record for performance and reliability, combined with a rapid product development cycle already set  Garmin apart from the competition. Having an office located at the hub of the automotive industry will only improve our ability to serve our global customers.”

Garmin is one the world's biggest navigation solutions providers. According to their own data, since Garmin was setup in 1989, about 82 million GPS enabled devices have been sold, on a market created at the time from scratch.