Gildan Activewear Publishes Investor Presentation for 2024 Annual Meeting
-- Board Urges Shareholders to Vote "FOR" ALL of Gildan's Recommended
Qualified and Experienced Director Nominees on the BLUE Proxy Card
-- Vote Today! For questions or help with voting, call 1-888-518-6813 (toll
free in North America), text or call 437-561-5012, email
contactus@kingsdaleadvisors.com or visit www.futureofgildan.com
MONTREAL, May 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gildan Activewear Inc. (GIL; TSX and NYSE) today announced that it has published an investor presentation, entitled "Successfully Driving Long-Term Value for All Shareholders", in connection with its upcoming 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "2024 Annual Meeting") to be held on May 28, 2024. The investor presentation will be available at http://www.futureofgildan.com and on the Company's 2024 Annual Meeting page.
Key highlights of the presentation include the following:
-- Why the refreshed Board is excited about Gildan's future:
-- Gildan is an industry-leading company with a strategic moat around
its business -- given its competitive position and advantageous
cost structure, the company should be a winner.
-- Gildan has a clear path to value creation through EBITDA expansion
as delivered through its Gildan Sustainable Growth $(GSG)$ strategy,
based on its key pillars of Growth, Innovation, and ESG.
-- Gildan has a strong leader in Vince Tyra and a strong management
team in place that can deliver value creation for all shareholders
through the execution of his enhanced GSG plan.
-- Gildan's recently refreshed board is highly collaborative and will
work collegially and constructively to oversee management's
delivery of the GSG plan and will hold management accountable.
-- Gildan's recently refreshed board excels at creating alignment,
which will resolve the current alignment problem between the
legacy board, management, and a group of shareholders being
instigated by an opportunistic activist.
-- Gildan's newly refreshed Board contains the right mix of fresh
perspectives, historical continuity, and investor input.
-- Gildan recommends the election of five newly-appointed independent
directors, four incumbent independent directors, and two
independent director nominees from the dissident's slate -- all
with the necessary experience, expertise, and skills needed to
maximize Gildan's full potential and mitigate further disruption.
-- The newly constituted Board is the result of a thorough,
deliberate process that was rooted in extensive shareholder
engagement, having held 87 meetings, including across Gildan's 25
top shareholders and those who Browning West has deemed as
supportive.
-- Glenn Chamandy is no longer the CEO that Gildan needs and there was a
clear case for change in 2023 after he irreparably broke the trust of
Gildan's Board.
-- It became apparent to the Board as early as in 2021 that it was
time to prepare for a Gildan without Mr. Chamandy. The Board
discussed succession planning with Mr. Chamandy for many years.
Mr. Chamandy himself agreed that change was needed when he told
the Board in 2021 that he would retire in 3-5 years. Despite this,
Mr. Chamandy sabotaged the process when it came time to execute on
the succession plan.
-- The case for change in 2023 was clear:
-- Mr. Chamandy was gradually more disengaged in Gildan's
business, averaging only 4 days in the office per month in
the six months prior to his termination and sending out no
more than a handful of work-related emails each day.
-- Mr. Chamandy was distracted by outside personal pursuits
including the development a luxury golf resort in Barbados.
-- Mr. Chamandy never visited Gildan's newest manufacturing
plant in Bangladesh, a major investment for the company.
-- Mr. Chamandy held few senior management meetings.
-- Mr. Chamandy failed to govern himself in accordance with
acceptable standards of behavior for a chief executive,
such as recording a private and confidential phone call
with former Chair Donald Berg, without Mr. Berg's
knowledge.
-- Instead of putting forward a compelling strategy, Mr.
Chamandy attempted to entrench himself by giving the Board
an ultimatum: approve a high-risk multi-billion-dollar
acquisition strategy predicated on guaranteeing his role as
CEO for several more years to oversee its integration, or
he would leave the Company immediately and sell his shares.
-- Gildan's business was losing momentum, growth was stalled,
and share price performance had been stagnating for the
past 10 years.
-- While the Board was focused on an orderly transition, Mr.
Chamandy's sabotage of an agreed succession plan and his
insistence of a risky and dilutive multi-billion-dollar
acquisitions strategy left the Board with no choice but to
terminate him.
-- As he left, he also violated company polices related to the
safeguarding of corporate information by wiping data from his
Gildan communication devices.
-- Vince Tyra is exactly the right CEO to scale Gildan in an increasingly
complex and fiercely competitive global environment.
-- The Board undertook a robust and structured CEO succession
planning process and at the conclusion of this process selected
Vince Tyra as CEO.
-- Few people have had the opportunity to demonstrate their
leadership skills across such an impressive range of industries
and managerial challenges as Vince Tyra. The throughline of
Vince's career is using his financial acumen, sound management and
ability to build teams and motivate people around a shared
strategy and vision to improve the companies and organizations he
has led.
-- Houchens Industries: As Senior Vice-President of Corporate
Strategy and M&A, Vince led the strategic growth of this $4
billion revenue employee-owned holding company through
investments in sectors including consumer products and
retail.
-- University of Louisville: In perhaps the most challenging
turnaround of his career, Vince fixed the scandal-plagued
Athletics Program at the NCAA powerhouse. Under his
leadership, Vince established a new culture of excellence
and compliance while rebuilding the sports program.
-- Southfield Capital: As an Operating Partner and Investment
Committee Member at Southfield, Vince helped achieve
industry leading returns by positively impacting many
portfolio companies in various leadership positions. At
Southfield, Vince's portfolio produced strong returns, with
an internal rate of return of 27% and a multiple of
invested capital of 3.2x.
-- Broder Bros.: As CEO of Broder, Vince spearheaded a
successful series of acquisitions, including Alpha Shirts
-- later named Alphabroder, tripling EBITDA -- the basis
for value creation at private equity firms. Under Vince's
leadership, Broder successfully executed Bain Capital's
levered roll-up strategy and transformed itself into the
market leader.
-- Fruit of the Loom: Vince joined Fruit of the Loom from 1997
to 2000 where the board of directors promoted him to
President during a tumultuous time where he developed and
implemented a successful restructuring plan ahead of its
eventual sale to Berkshire Hathaway.
-- In addition, Vince invested in and grew his own activewear
business early in his career, while utilizing Gildan as a
key supplier.
-- Vince has served on the board of directors at 10 companies
and stepped in as interim CEO at three companies.
-- Vince hit the ground running in his role as President & CEO of
Gildan and has prioritized consistent engagement with the various
stakeholders of Gildan, including:
-- Visiting 18 offices and manufacturing sites to get immersed
in Gildan's processes and cultures,
-- Attending various trade shows to reinforce his presence and
reconnect with customers,
-- Holding town halls and interacting with approximately 94%
of Gildan's global leadership base as well as over 2,000
employees to create a two-way dialogue,
-- Kicking off dialogue with major partners to better
understand challenges and opportunities, and
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May 13, 2024 07:15 ET (11:15 GMT)
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