Chuck Ward: To comment, there has been, it’s been a little bit of, I would say, diverse reaction throughout some of the international markets. We’re seeing, Asia is actually up, so we’re starting to see, for a long time, we were seeing decline there. We’re seeing improvement there. You know, Europe’s stable, but we’re still seeing some of what we saw previous quarters, which I mentioned was, was kind of lower in the UK versus better in continental Europe. We’re still seeing those same trends. That hasn’t really changed a whole lot, but then we’ve seen strength in Latin America, some of that driven by things like election in Mexico. That’s happening now that obviously, drives volume, so we’re seeing good volume in that market.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Luke Hannan with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.
Luke Hannan: Thanks. Good afternoon, Rhod. I think you had mentioned, we were talking earlier about innovation, and I think the specific style that you brought up was the Gildan 3000. Is something that was being well received by customers. Can you remind us just where you are as of today when it comes to introducing new innovation, new products to both your retail and your imprintable customers as well? Are we in the early stages here? Should that accelerate throughout the year? Maybe just the cash cadence of that?
Rhodri Harries: Yes. Luke, I think, overall to the 3000 perspective we are in early days there. We’ve launched that from an international perspective, had a great reception to it, and I think it’s going to really help us grow internationally. We’ve done that in some of our national count business that services large retailers as well. We’ve seen a great reception of that. But I think more importantly on the innovation side, we’ve talked about it quite, quite a bit last year and earlier this year around the real innovation is on some of our core product where we have taken our core basic product, we’ve upgraded it, given it a better feel, better printability. And really we’re still have it at the same price. And they’re starting to see that in the market and really you’re going to see it in the market largely in this summer.
But people are already starting to get the product and we’re getting great comments about it, about the improved hand, improved printability, both on that basic core product as well as our core fleece. And so those innovations are going to continue to drive the growth that we’ve talked about in our five year plan.
Luke Hannan: Okay, thanks. And then for my follow up here, we talked about the acceleration of pos so far into Q2. I’m just curious if you can share what sort of end markets are driving that as of today? I know the corporate promotional channel, for instance, has been somewhat of a laggard compared to some of the other end markets. Just curious if you can share what you’re seeing on that front?
Rhodri Harries: Yes, I think as we left, left first quarter, one in the second quarter, we just continued to see, sequential improvement really go back to January. We’ve seen it throughout, throughout each month we’re seeing sequential improvement. And I think as you think about it, you’re thinking about, I think we mentioned in our opening comments around travel and leisure and events, and we’re continuing to see those things drive demand and we’re seeing good demand driven from those things. To your point, some of the corporate spending we continue to think will be a future tailwind because it has not come back completely. But we are seeing improvements there. So we’re seeing it across various channels. And then also with our new activewear program that we had at retail that we launched in the first quarter has really performed well. And so obviously that’s been driving good pos for us as well.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Mark Petrie with CIBC. Your line is open.
Mark Petrie: Yes, thanks. Good afternoon. You just touched on it, Chuck, but I wanted to ask about the retail programs, the wins that are in place now, how they’re performing. I think you said performing well. I assume that means on plan. And then I think you had a new program coming in around now as well. Is that on track? Is that in place? And then are there other program wins that are embedded in your guidance, or would those be incremental to what you have out there?
Chuck Ward: Sure. Mark, I think, first of all, you asked about the program that recently launched, Ash, was the activewear program I just mentioned. It is performing well, I would say maybe even above some expectations. So it’s performed quite well and we’re happy with it. I think other programs, we do have other wins that we do have baked in, in our forecast that we have landed, and we’re excited about those. We have some that are kind of rolling Q2, some rolling Q three, and some rolling Q four. So we have opportunities that are, that are rolled out throughout the year, and it’s, again, activewear is doing well, I would say, on the underwear category, we have seen that that’s not performing quite to where we would hope. But again, we think there’s a tailwind.
We think there will be replenishment of people, of underwear coming soon. And we have some good opportunities within there where we’re doing some things with pack sizes, doing things with space, where I would say we should get improvement in turns. And so I think we are excited about the various retail programs that we have both coming and already launched.
Rhodri Harries: And I would say, Mark, anything above that any incremental programs will be upside to basically what we have in the right. So I think our forecast is we try to make sure that it’s deliverable, it reflects what we’re seeing in some respects. I would say we have been cautious because of the broader environment, what we said earlier about the consumer and, and how they’re reacting in the marketplace. So we have good programs on the activewear side, on the underwear side, on the hosiery side, they’re all rolling out, they’re reflected. And then if we do see some upside in the back half, which obviously we’re progressing through the year now, so that probably would impact more 2025 than it would ’24. But in any event, if they are new programs that will provide support to the upside, I would say.
Mark Petrie: Yes, okay, thanks. And on Bangladesh, how should we think about sort of the ramp up from here? I mean, if you’re at 75% exit rate or 75% capacity at exit of the year, where are you today? How should we frame the revenue contribution of that? And then how will that ramp up affect your Central America capacity and when would those shifts be?
Rhodri Harries: So, Mark, if you look at where we are, as we very clear, right, we end of the year ’25, we’re going to be at 75% at the end of the year. And I would say the ramp up is going very well. It’s progressing actually in some respects a little bit better than we anticipated. And we are very excited about what we see coming out of Bangladesh. And so, and we have good flexibility, actually, as the environment, the broader environment gets a little bit stronger, we need to go a little faster. We definitely have the capability to do that as we move through ’24. And then what we expect is the progressive ramp up of the remainder in ’25. So it’s going very well and we are very pleased with the product, with the cost, everything that’s occurring in Bangladesh. And the second part of your question, again, please.
Mark Petrie: Second part related to how the Central American capacity will be adjusted as Bangladesh ramps up and the timing of that.
Rhodri Harries: Yes, I would say that our Central American capacity is pretty well dialed in now. Right. Effectively, that capacity is obviously close to the North American market. We’ve got it focusing on certain products. Fleece is a good example of that, on the GLB side is also a good example of that. It’s on the hosiery side. So say Central America is focused on a number of different products and we’ve got it where we want it to be. And so as we go forward, what we’re really expecting is growth to come out of Bangladesh and to continue to run with the current capacity that we have in Central America. And then we’ll see. I mean, we might get the opportunity to that up as well at some point as well. But right now I would say that’s pretty stable. And we’re bringing up Bangladesh and we’ve got very, very good flexibility with that ongoing ramp up and supporting future growth.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vishal Shreedhar with National bank. Your line is open.
Vishal Shreedhar: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a few clarifications. Has Gildan taken all the price that it needs to take, or do you anticipate taking more through the year?
Chuck Ward: No, we do not anticipate taking additional price. I think we are comfortable with price. We think overall pricing will remain stable. And again, we will just do some strategic pricing where we need to, where we think we can gain share, as Rhod mentioned, maybe in international markets, certain categories, certain markets. But again, I think we think price will remain fairly stable.
Vishal Shreedhar: Okay. And the gains that you’ve noted in international, the inflection, is that due to allocating more capacity to the international markets or is that due to the international markets themselves recovering or a bit of both?
Chuck Ward: I would say there’s some of both, but I think really, as we go forward, as one, you’re going to continue to see improvement in international markets. But on top of that, we think there’s definitely opportunity to, as Vince said in his opening remarks, regain share and gain additional share in international markets as Bangladesh comes up, because that gives us the ability where maybe we had shorted those markets in the past. We have the ability to make sure we have the right inventory available, because, again, availability is a key purchase criteria, obviously, for us. And so we want to make sure that product’s available in market. And with Bangladesh coming up and ramping up, we’ll be able to do that. And as Rhod said, if it grows, if the markets grow or we gain share quicker, we can ramp up Bangladesh quicker to fulfill that.
Vishal Shreedhar: Okay, so the 25% of Bangladesh that you currently ramped up to by the end of 2023, that’s being placed internationally currently.
Chuck Ward: Well, that’s feeding both. I want to be clear. It helps feed international, but it also comes back to the north american market as well. So our underwear is largely made in Bangladesh. So it feeds that market back to the US. It feeds our growth. I talked about earlier, our fashion growth is up double digits. It feeds, it helps feed that growth. That’s the reason, as Rhod said, Central America, we are stable with things like copper colors, GLB hosiery. And as we continue to grow, we’ll use bangle Dash to continue to grow, not only to provide international markets, but also come back to North America.
Operator: Okay, thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I’ll turn the call to Jessy Hayem for closing remarks.
Jessy Hayem: Thank you. And again, we’d like to thank everyone for joining us and attending our call today. And we look forward to speaking with you soon. Have a great evening.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.
