Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Luke Hannan: Okay. So then in other words, if you look also at the rest of the competitive set, I know you’ve mentioned before in the past that there’s been this lever where you guys can take price because you’re seeing inflation, not just on fiber costs, but on a variety of different cost buckets. As it stands today, are you seeing any evidence of competitors more broadly looking to take price as a result of those — that cost inflation abating?

Glenn Chamandy: Well, I don’t know, if it’s so much cost inflation, but I think that from we say, like I said, some of our fashion competitors have lowered prices, but are still significantly above us. It may not be because of inflationary reductions, but it’s maybe more from business by business. I mean, I think that they’re losing significant share. We’re gaining share in this market. So one of the things that we just mentioned earlier is that the market is down it was low double-digits, and we’re positive low single-digits. I mean, so we’re obviously taking share, and there is a reaction. But we’re positioned ourselves perfectly because of our product portfolio, the different levels of pricing, basics are coming back now.

We’re diagnostic of what’s being sold. I mean hood or crew, we really don’t care, and we’re taking share. So I think we’re well-positioned. And I think more importantly, even one of the things that Rhod said that even with this mix, which is factored into our forecast, we’ll be at the high end of our operating margins in Q4. And we would have been higher than that if the mix obviously would have been better because you got added a couple of like Rhod said, the impact is 200 basis points or 170 for example in Q2. So we would have been higher than even the high end of operating margins in Q4, but we’re still there. We’re well-positioned. We have a good cotton position. We have good visibility on our manufacturing. So as we continue to move into the future, despite the mix change, I think we’ll be well-positioned to move into ’24.

Luke Hannan: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vishal Shreedhar of National Bank Financial. Your line is open.

Vishal Shreedhar: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Just on the comments about being down 12%. Can you maybe elaborate on that? Is that industry units? Is that industry sales? And how does that reconcile with what you saw last quarter when the April trends were down, call it flattish to slightly down? And maybe you can give me the time period of that particular data point that you mentioned.

Glenn Chamandy: Well, I think, last quarter, we said we were slightly down. This quarter we’re positive mid low single-digits. But what we’re referring to is that the overall market is down low double-digits basically. So I think that’s the question. It’s the actual market itself and the conditions within the market. So we’re gaining share within this market. And that answers your question.

Vishal Shreedhar: Yes. Is that market — that’s market in units? And is that that’s for —

Glenn Chamandy: Yes, that’s all unit — that’s all unit for the — that’s for the quarter.

Vishal Shreedhar: That’s units for the quarter.

Glenn Chamandy: Units for the quarter.

Vishal Shreedhar: Then how — what July trend? Worse or stable?

Glenn Chamandy: July for us is trending better. We’re mid-single digits positive on our activewear products. Our underwear and sock products because of the new launches, we’re basically probably low double-digits today, and we expect that to actually grow to probably high double-digits as we move into the future Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 as we continue to see momentum on our new products. And also where mid-July is like mid-single digits for us, but as we also move into Q4, we’re going to be comping — easier comps for us. So we should see that grow a little bit as well just from a comp perspective. But we’re continuing to take share. I think we’re taking more share in beginning of Q3 than we did in Q2.