Tech Data forms partnership with wearables industry leader Garmin
Basingstoke, 09 November 2015 – Tech Data UK has been appointed as a business-to-business distributor for Garmin’s range of wearable products and is aiming to build opportunities with companies that want to encourage healthy lifestyles and behaviours amongst their staff.
Garmin offers a range of activity products to suit all kinds of users. The vívofit® 2 activity tracker shows steps, calories, distance, and time of day on a backlit display, runs for more than a year on the battery and is water-resistant, while in addition to these features the vívosmart® offers vibration alerts and a ‘touch and swipe’ display. The ultra-thin, vívoactive™ GPS smartwatch has an excellent sunlight-readable, high-resolution colour touch-screen and comes with built-in sports apps for running, biking, golfing, swimming and general activity tracking. The full range is available to order with immediate effect from Tech Data.
Jason Clegg, Consumer Business Development Manager at Tech Data, says that the agreement represents a major step forward for Tech Data in the wearables market and presents a good opportunity for retailers and resellers. “Garmin is a really well-known and respected name amongst consumers and offers an exciting range of activity tracker products that addresses the growth in the corporate wellness sector. We see this as a big opportunity and one that has the potential to grow very quickly indeed.
“Improving employee health and wellness is a common goal for employers, but addressing the needs of individuals at varying levels of fitness can be a challenge. Garmin offers the perfect solution to this problem, providing a range of devices to suit different requirements. These trusted devices can be seamlessly integrated into a corporate wellness programme, providing motivation and recognition for the efforts of employees.”
Anton Beavis, National Account Manager at Garmin Europe, talks about the distribution arrangement and how this reflects the ongoing investments being made by Garmin in the wellness arena. ‘‘Tech Data is one of the world’s largest wholesale distributors of technology products and we are delighted to be partnering with them in the UK and Ireland. We have solid plans for the future, with continued commitment to produce innovative products for our customers.
‘‘Products like the new vívosmart® HR, offering wrist-based heart rate via Garmin Elevate, along with an always-on display, smart notifications and activity intensity levels will only support us in aiming for our challenging goals. To support superior products like this and many others, we recently launched an update to Garmin Connect Mobile. The update offers a new modern and colourful interface, the ability to customise based on individual needs and improved social capabilities. Each of the new devices are also compatible with Connect IQ™, our smartwatch platform.
“We see clear synergy between our organisations and together we look forward to supporting this growing market.’’
Garmin has created an online fitness community through the Garmin Connect portal. This allows individuals to save and share their progress, access free training plans and join online challenges. It also allows users to compete with other participants of the same corporate wellness programme, or with other users and companies from around the world.
Tech Data and Garmin have already started to work together on promotions and partner support. Garmin will be one of the Tech Data’s key partners at the forthcoming Wearables & Accessories Analysing Opportunities conference, which takes place in London on 17th November. Tech Data is a major sponsor of the event. For more information, please visit the eventbrite site at bit.ly/1MKQLwf, or click here.
Picture: Jason Clegg, Consumer Business Development Manager.
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