GILDAN ACTIVEWEAR INC.: Gildan Confirms that Operations and Facilities Unaffected by Honduran Earthquake

Published in House and Home on Thursday, May 28th 2009 at 6:57 GMT, Last Modified on 2009-05-28 06:59:02 by Market Wire
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MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - May 28, 2009) - Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSX:GIL)(NYSE:GIL) confirmed that an earthquake which occurred early this morning in Honduras has caused negligible damage at its manufacturing facilities and that its facilities, operations, production and supply chain, including normal access to roads and ports, are expected to be virtually unaffected by this event. Three employees sustained very minor injuries during a precautionary evacuation of Rio Nance at the time of the earthquake.

Profile

Gildan is a vertically-integrated marketer and manufacturer of quality branded basic apparel. The Company is the leading supplier of activewear for the screenprint channel in the U.S. and Canada. It is also a leading supplier to this market in Europe, and is establishing a growing presence in Mexico and the Asia-Pacific region. The Company sells T-shirts, sport shirts and fleece in large quantities to wholesale distributors as undecorated "blanks", which are subsequently decorated by screenprinters with designs and logos. Consumers ultimately purchase the Company's products, with the Gildan label, in venues such as sports, entertainment and corporate events, and travel and tourism destinations. The Company's products are also utilized for work uniforms and other end-uses to convey individual, group and team identity. The Company is also a leading supplier of private label and Gildan branded socks primarily sold to mass-market retailers. In addition, Gildan has an objective to become a significant supplier of men's and boys' underwear and undecorated activewear products to mass-market retailers in North America.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Canadian securities legislation and regulations, and are subject to important risks, uncertainties and assumptions. This forward-looking information includes, amongst others, information with respect to our objectives and the strategies to achieve these objectives, as well as information with respect to our beliefs, plans, expectations, anticipations, estimates and intentions. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of conditional or forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "project", " assume", "anticipate", "plan", "foresee", "believe" or "continue" or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. We refer you to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the "Risks and Uncertainties" section and the risks described under the section "Financial Risk Management" of the 2008 Annual MD&A, as subsequently updated in our first and second quarter 2009 interim MD&A, for a discussion of the various factors that may affect the Company's future results. Material factors and assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection are also set out throughout this press release

Forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and results or events predicted in such forward-looking information may differ materially from actual results or events. Material factors, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from a conclusion, forecast or projection in such forward-looking information, include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions such as commodity prices, currency exchange rates, interest rates and other factors over which we have no control; the impact of economic and business conditions, industry trends and other external, political and social factors in the countries in which we operate; the intensity of competitive activity; changes in environmental, tax, trade, employment, consumer product safety and other laws and regulations; our ability to implement our strategies and plans; our ability to complete and successfully integrate acquisitions; our reliance on a small number of significant customers; changes in consumer preferences, customer demand for our products and our ability to maintain customer relationships and grow our business; the fact that our customers do not commit to minimum quantity purchases; the seasonality of our business; our ability to attract and retain key personnel; our reliance on computerized information systems; changes in accounting policies and estimates; and disruption to manufacturing and distribution activities due to labour disruptions, bad weather, natural disasters and other unforeseen adverse events.

These factors may cause the Company's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements do not take into account the effect that transactions or non-recurring or other special items announced or occurring after the statements are made have on the Company's business. For example, they do not include the effect of business dispositions, acquisitions, other business transactions, asset writedowns or other charges announced or occurring after forward-looking statements are made. The financial impact of such transactions and non-recurring and other special items can be complex and necessarily depends on the facts particular to each of them.

We believe that the expectations represented by our forward-looking statements are reasonable, yet there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The purpose of the forward-looking statements is to provide the reader with a description of management's expectations regarding the Company's fiscal 2009 financial performance and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and we do not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by applicable legislation or regulation. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

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