Gildan Activewear Provides Update Related to COVID-19

¹ Please refer to "Non-GAAP financial measures" in this press release.

MONTREAL, March 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gildan Activewear Inc. (GIL: TSX and NYSE) today provided an update in response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on its business and operations. 

The spread of COVID-19 continues to heighten and is having a significant impact on global economic activity.  As it relates to areas of Gildan’s business, our first priority is the health and welfare of our employees, customers, suppliers and other partners which we have been working to address.  We have also started to see a meaningful deceleration in demand in the imprintables channel given measures that governments, companies and individuals are taking to limit the spread of COVID-19, including the limitation of social gatherings, travel restrictions and the cancellation of various sporting, entertainment, promotional, and cultural events, amongst others. Additionally, although we have not yet seen as significant a deceleration of demand for our products in all the retail channels that we serve, we expect the multitude of recently announced temporary store closures and social distancing measures being recommended by governments and health protection agencies will also continue to slow retail demand.

Effective March 17, the government of Honduras mandated a 7-day closure of all private enterprises operating in the country which has now been extended to March 29.  Governments of some of the other countries in which we operate are also issuing similar directives to combat the spread of COVID-19.  Accordingly, given the impact of all these factors, the Company announced today that it is temporarily suspending production at all of its manufacturing facilities until mid-April.  This will allow us to respect government recommendations and align production and inventory levels with current demand requirements.  All other areas of our business, including our distribution centres which service the various regions where we sell our products will remain open for the time being with good inventory availability levels to service our customers, operating with appropriate measures in place to protect our employees, including remote working arrangements for many of our office staff.