Garmin officially cut the ribbon on their new digs in the heart of downtown Cochrane yesterday (September 4).

Located in the Quarry, Garmin is a tech-lovers dream on the inside as it creates, designs and tests products for enhanced performance and healthy lifestyles.

Jim Rooney, Managing Director Garmin Cochrane shares it is hard to believe how far they have come. "It is pretty crazy to think that twenty years ago we started off doing technology out of a garage with just a couple of people. Now we have over 100 full-time people and generally a dozen or more full-time students helping us work. We started off doing a single product and these days we probably turn over 20 to 25 products a year."

The technology behind Garmin products is as broad as its users; from top performing athletes to those who just like to recreate outdoors. "With each product, there's quite a lot of technology. For example, we do products that measure how far you swim, what your stroke type is, to products that help you on your bike and measure the power you are putting into the pedals to more safety aspects like bike lights and bike radar."

Continuing to help individuals remain healthy and active, the Garmin Cochrane office attracts employees and community members who share the same philosophy. "We have a lot of passionate people who want to use the products and we try to encourage people to get out and be active. We pull a lot of people in from the community to test our products and we try to set up our facility to represent and support that. Having the outdoors at our doorstep and being able to support that lifestyle with our team allows us to have a really good base to build and grow any designs or concepts that our team comes up, which makes Cochrane an ideal place for our head office."

While you may wonder why Garmin chose to stay in Cochrane?! The answer is easy, states Rooney. "We build and are passionate about products for outdoors and fitness. Cochrane is such a great location to get outdoors and use our kind of products that it just makes so much sense for us to be here to work and play. You could look at the real estate in Calgary right now and get some pretty good deals but that is not where we want to be. We wanted to be in the centre of Cochrane where we're close to the mountains, pathways, back roads to go riding; we really have everything in Cochrane that we want. So now we have an awesome site where we can really put down our roots and grow for a long time."

Garmin Cochrane is extending an invite to the community at large to drop by any time today (September 5) from 3 to 8 pm to check out their technology hub behind the scenes. 

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