Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE: GIL) is widely recognized as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of everyday basic apparel and legwear. The company’s core business is producing and supplying a broad catalog of garments—such as T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, hoodies, and other blank activewear—along with a substantial hosiery/legwear line ...Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE: GIL) is widely recognized as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of everyday basic apparel and legwear. The company’s core business is producing and supplying a broad catalog of garments—such as T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, hoodies, and other blank activewear—along with a substantial hosiery/legwear line including athletic, dress, and casual socks, as well as pantyhose, tights, and leggings. Gildan also produces underwear for men and boys and women’s intimate apparel, and it offers ladies’ shapewear and related accessories through its brands and sub-brands.
From a business model perspective, Gildan sells both branded products and decorated-ready blanks. A key part of the go-to-market strategy is bulk distribution to customers such as wholesale distributors, screen printers, embellishers, traditional retailers, and lifestyle brand companies—allowing partners to add decoration or sell under their own channel strategies. This “scale manufacturing + bulk supply” approach can translate into cost advantages and operational leverage, particularly when raw material procurement, fabric processing, and garment production are coordinated in a vertically integrated manner. In practical BOM (bill of materials) terms, clothing manufacturing is materially driven by yarn/fabric costs (and their conversion into knit/loomed fabric), trims (e.g., collars, cuffs, elastics), and packaging, with logistics/lead times affecting working capital; thus, the company’s manufacturing scale and production planning are central to controlling landed cost and delivery performance.
On products and services, Gildan’s portfolio spans multiple brand families—commonly cited examples include Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Comfort Colors, American Apparel, Alstyle, GoldToe, and others—covering activewear, socks/legwear, and intimas/shapewear. The company’s large footprint and production base support a wide assortment of SKUs and seasonal programs, while also enabling consistent supply for customers who need recurring blank garments and legwear.
Financially, based on the provided snapshot metrics (ttm), the market assigns a market capitalization on the order of billions of USD, with valuation multiples reflecting investor expectations for future profitability and cash generation. Operationally, apparel manufacturing typically depends on maintaining margins through manufacturing efficiency, favorable mix, and stable demand in wholesale and retail channels; therefore, key watch items often include gross margin trends, inventory/receivables management, and operating cash flow.
Key people: Glenn J. Chamandy is identified as the CEO and a co-founder, reflecting the company’s founding-family leadership tradition. Regarding history, the company description notes an earlier precursor founded in 1946 (initially known as Textiles Gildan Inc.), while multiple public references identify 1984 as the founding year of the company’s modern formation through the Chamandy brothers. Overall, Gildan’s stated ambition and market position center on producing and delivering high-quality apparel and legwear at scale to global customers.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$3.7B
+12.5%
+32.3%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$405.9M
+1.2%
+26.0%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+30.2%
-1.7%
+17.9%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
+19.8%
+5.0%
+228.2%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
+11.0%
-10.0%
+44.1%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$477.2M
+36.0%
+202.2%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
+13.0%
+20.8%
+177.2%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
137.1%
+20.8%
-1.2%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
2.11x
-5.1%
-17.7%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Gildan Activewear's 2026 Q2 Earnings Conference Call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Jessy Hayem, Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations and Global Communications. Please go ahead.
Jessy HayemSenior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations and Global CommunicationsSentiment 0.0
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our results for the second quarter of 2026, while updating our guidance for 2026 and maintaining our 3-year objectives for the 2026-2028 period. The company's management discussion and analysis and consolidated financial statements for the 3 and 6 months ended June 28, 2026, are expected to be filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today and will also be available on our corporate website. Now joining me on the call today are Glenn Chamandy, President and CEO of Gildan; Luca Barile, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; and Chuck Ward, Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. This morning, we'll take you through the results for the quarter, and then a question-and-answer session will follow. Before we begin, please take note that certain statements included in this conference call may constitute forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We refer you to the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including in the case of our full year and Q3 2026 outlook and our 3-year objectives for the 2026-2028 period as well as certain risks and assumptions related thereto, our earnings press release dated July 30, 2026. During this call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS measures are provided in today's earnings release as well as our MD&A. Before I turn it over to Glenn, a few items to note. We may refer to HanesBrands as Hanes throughout this call. And earlier today, we also announced that we entered into a definitive agreement to divest the HanesBrands Australian business, which we refer to as HAA. Remember that HAA had been classified as held for sale and reported as discontinued operations since the fourth quarter of 2025. As such, unless otherwise indicated, the figures we will be discussing today are from continuing operations and therefore, exclude the results of the HAA business. And now I'll turn it over to Glenn.
Glenn ChamandyPresident and CEOSentiment 0.8
Thank you, Jessy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on this call. As we highlighted this morning's press release, we delivered strong results in this quarter as our team continued to execute with discipline against our strategic objectives. Our second …
