Gildan Activewear has announced results for the third quarter ended 1st October 2023. The Montreal headquartered company is updating its fiscal 2023 guidance to the lower end of previously provided revenue and EPS ranges while maintaining expected FCF generation above $425 million.

"Our competitive position remains very strong in a challenging environment driven by our industry-leading vertically integrated manufacturing platform. We delivered third quarter performance which came in overall in line with our expectations. We resumed our sales growth trajectory and delivered operating margin within our target range,” commented Glenn J. Chamandy, Gildan’s President and CEO.

“During the third quarter, the company delivered net sales of $870 million, up 2% over the prior year’s sales of $850 million, as we moved past the impact of strong prior year comparative periods tied to post-pandemic replenishment.”

“We also delivered solid adjusted operating margin1 of 18.1%.  Consequently, GAAP diluted EPS came in at $0.73 and adjusted diluted EPS1 at $0.74, both down as anticipated from $0.84 in the third quarter last year. Cash flows from operating activities were strong for the quarter totalling $305 million, and we generated $265 million of free cash flow1 after capital expenditures of $43 million.”

“This positioned the company well to continue to execute on its capital allocation priorities during the quarter and we repurchased 2.7 million shares at a cost of $80 million under our normal course issuer bid (NCIB) program. This program, which was recently renewed, authorizes the repurchase of up to 5% of the Company's outstanding common shares. We ended the third quarter with net debt1 of $1,018 million and a leverage ratio1 of 1.6 times net debt to trailing twelve months adjusted EBITDA1 well within our targeted debt levels,” Mr Glenn Chamandy concluded.

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