Messages from Management
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Message from the President and CEO
One of Gildan’s strategic objectives continues to be to invest in its commitment to maintaining a leadership position in its corporate citizenship practices. This is becoming an even greater priority due to our increasing global presence, as we continue to grow our sales and market share, expand our production operations around the world and have come to employ close to 30,000 people worldwide.
During the past year, we continued to advance our best practices as we built on our leadership position in the apparel industry in corporate citizenship and sustainable development. We increased our recycling efforts with the initiation of a cotton waste recycling project which has allowed us to introduce recycled material in our manufacturing process. We have also expanded our biomass operations in Honduras, with new facilities to support our hosiery manufacturing operations. During fiscal 2012, we are adding an additional facility to support our textile manufacturing operations in Honduras. We are proud of these advancements as they not only serve to reduce our footprint on the environment but also drive shareholder value as they result in a direct reduction in our energy consumption and production costs.
As part of our initiatives for the coming year, we will be focusing on integrating our corporate citizenship practices with our recent acquisition of a vertically integrated textile and sewing facility in Bangladesh, as well as the sourcing relationships we acquired through our acquisition of GoldToeMoretz. We recognize the importance of consistently applying our practices at all our locations and with all our business partners as we continue to expand the globalization of our supply chain.
In recognition of our continuing achievements and commitment to corporate sustainability, for the third consecutive year, Gildan was recognized as one of Canada’s top 50 Best Corporate Citizens by Jantzi-Sustainalytics / Maclean’s magazine.
Finally, I am pleased to introduce Peter Iliopoulos, our Senior Vice-President, Public and Corporate Affairs who recently assumed leadership of our corporate citizenship department. Peter will draw on his ten years of experience at Gildan to further expand on our leading corporate citizenship initiatives. Peter and I are excited for the opportunities which lie ahead and we are confident that Gildan will continue to lead by example in social and environmental responsibility.Glenn J. Chamandy
President and Chief Executive Officer
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Message from the Senior Vice-President, Public and Corporate Affairs
Having spent the past ten years as part of Gildan’s management team, I was recently provided with the opportunity to assume the leadership of Gildan’s corporate citizenship department. I am appreciative of the confidence shown in me by both the executive management team and our Board of Directors and fully commit to continue to build on Gildan’s excellent record and standing in the area of corporate social responsibility.
Our corporate citizenship platform, Gildan Genuine Stewardship, focuses on our four core pillars of people, environment, community and product. My vision is to translate our past, present and future accomplishments in each of these areas into the reputation of a brand people can trust. This image will be reflected not only in the quality of the products we offer our public, but also in our personal engagement in the communities in which we operate, our unwavering commitment to offer the best possible working conditions to our employees and our continued focus on reducing the impact our operations have on the environment.
Our primary initiatives for the coming year will be to develop a strong and effective management system for both our social and environmental practices, globalize our community involvement program, continue to strengthen our relationships and credibility with our various external stakeholders, and introduce targets in the area of social and environmental responsibility to further demonstrate the importance of our corporate citizenship commitment and provide measurable goals which we will be accountable for on an ongoing basis.
We are pleased to launch our new web-based reporting platform which provides us with a more modern and dynamic format to effectively communicate our message, progress and achievements to each of our stakeholders. We encourage you to take a few moments and navigate through our website and gain a better understanding of what Genuine Gildan is all about.
I am looking forward to the challenges which lie ahead and in working with a talented group of individuals as we collaboratively execute initiatives to maintain and improve upon our leadership position in the industry.Peter Iliopoulos
Senior Vice-President, Public and Corporate Affairs
