Good morning and welcome to the Gildan Activewear Annual Meeting of Shareholders. My name is Michael Kneeland, and I am the Chair of the Board of Directors of Gildan. Seated with me are Glenn Chamandy, President and Chief Executive Officer; Michelle Taylor, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary; and Luca Barile, Chief Financial Officer since March 1, 2025. I would like to introduce the other directors who are present here today: Michener Chandlee, Anne-Laure Descours, Peter Lee, Karen Stuckey. Ghislain Houle, and Mélanie Kau. Unfortunately, they could not make it with us today. J.P. Towner is also not present today, as he has decided not to stand for reelection due to the increasing commitment since his recent appointment as Chief Executive Officer of RONA Incorporated. On behalf of the Board, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation to J.P. for his strong insights and contributions over the past year.
I'd also like to mention the following members of management who are also present: Rhodri Harries, Chief Administrative Officer, and Chuck Ward, Chief Operating Officer. This year, the meeting is being held in a hybrid format, allowing for both in-person and virtual participation. We believe this allows for both direct communication with shareholders while providing a valuable opportunity for our internationally based shareholders to engage with Gildan without the need for travel. We will begin by conducting the official business of the meeting. After the official business is completed, Glenn Chamandy and Luca Barile will address shareholders and provide overall business and financial update. After that, we will answer any questions during the meeting. I would now ask the Corporate Secretary, Michelle Taylor, to take us through the certain procedures for the conduct of this meeting.
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[Foreign language] . We also wanted to go over a few items to ensure the orderly conduct of the meeting. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. If you participate in today's meeting and disclose personal information, you will be deemed to consent to the recording, transfer, and use of this information. If you disclose personal information of another person in today's meeting, you will be deemed to represent and warrant that you first obtained all required consents for the disclosure, recording, transfer, and use of such personal information.
Once voting has opened, the voting tab will appear on the navigation bar at the top of your screen. The resolutions and voting choices will then be displayed. After you vote, a message confirming "Vote received" will appear. Your vote can be changed at any time until the polls are closed by simply clicking the "Other" option. If you wish to cancel your vote, please press "Cancel." Only registered holders of common shares of record as of March 18, 2025, and duly appointed proxy holders are permitted to participate, ask questions, and vote at this meeting. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who have already voted online or submitted proxies in advance of today's meeting are not required to vote again unless they wish to change their vote. Questions will only be addressed during the question period at the end of the meeting.
When asking a question in person, we would ask that you please indicate your name, the entity you represent, if any, and confirm that you are a registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder. Questions may also be submitted using the instant messaging service on the virtual meeting platform, provided that you have logged in the platform as a registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder. Questions submitted during the meeting via the online platform will be moderated before being sent to the Chair. Questions or comments containing inappropriate language or that are otherwise disruptive to the orderly conduct of the meeting for all shareholders will not be answered. Questions which are already answered or that are redundant or repetitive will not be answered. Thank you.
Thank you, Michelle. The meeting is now called to order. In accordance with the bylaws of the Corporation, I will preside as Chair of this meeting, and I hereby appoint Michelle Taylor to act as the Secretary of the meeting. I now appoint Martine Gauthier and Teresa De Luca of Computershare Investor Services as scrutineers to report the number of common shares represented in person and by proxy at this meeting and to report on the voting results. I received a sworn declaration prepared by Computershare indicating that the notice calling this meeting and accompanying materials were duly mailed and delivered to registered shareholders and to intermediaries. Accordingly, I propose to dispense with the reading of the notice, and I direct that a copy of the notice and proof of the service be kept by the Secretary with records of this meeting.
The scrutineers have provided me with their report on attendance at the meeting, and it shows that a quorum has been reached. I direct that a copy of the scrutineers' report be kept by the Secretary with records of this meeting. I now declare the meeting regularly constituted for the transaction of business. I would now ask the Secretary of the meeting to take us through the certain voting procedures for this meeting.
In addition to receiving the annual consolidated financial statements, today, shareholders will vote on three items as described in our Management Information Circular. These are the appointment of the auditors, the election of the directors, and a non-binding advisory resolution on the company's approach to executive compensation. In order to facilitate the timely completion of the formal business of today's meetings, we have arranged for certain shareholders to move and second the various motions. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders will be asked to vote on each item of business after each item of business is presented. Approval of all items of business brought before the meeting will require an affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast by shareholders.
Voting tablets for the items of business were distributed to registered shareholders who had not previously voted by proxy and duly appointed proxy holders as they arrived at today's meeting. If you did not receive any voting tablets but think you should have, please raise your hand, and a representative of Computershare Investor Services will attend to you. If you are a shareholder who holds shares through a broker and you submitted a form of proxy or voting information form prior to the deadline, your vote has already been counted. For registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders attending the meeting virtually, you will receive a message on the virtual meeting platform advising you that the polls are open. You will only have a certain period of time to cast your vote.
Thank you, Michelle. I now present to the meeting the consolidated financial statements of the company for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024, and the auditor's report thereon. These financial statements were previously mailed to shareholders. Having done so, I now declare the audited financial statements of the company for the year ended December 29, 2024, together with the report of the auditors thereon, have been presented and received. The next item of business is to appoint KPMG LLP as the company's auditors and that the Board of Gildan be authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditors as recommended by the Audit and Finance Committee. I ask for a motion and a seconder.
My name is Jason DeHaan. I'm a shareholder and proxy holder. I move that KPMG LLP be appointed as the company's auditors and that the Board of Directors of the company be authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditors.
My name is Suzanne Adams. I'm a shareholder and proxy holder. I second the motion.
Thank you. I now direct that a vote be taken on the appointment of KPMG as the company's auditors. If you did not vote already on this item, please do so. In the interest of expediency, we will proceed with the business of the meeting and announce the voting results for all items of the business at the end of the meeting. We will now proceed to the election of directors. The Board has determined that eight persons should be elected as directors of the company and have proposed eight candidates to hold such office for the ensuing year. Seven, who are independent, in addition to Glenn Chamandy and myself, six highly qualified individuals are being proposed for election as directors. Their biographies are included in the company's Management Information Circular made available to our shareholders. The directors will be voted on individually rather than as a slate.
Each of the nominees has expressed a desire to serve as a director for the company. I nominate each of the following persons for election as a director of the company to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders or until his or her successors are duly elected or appointed. The nominees are Glenn Chamandy, Michener Chand lee, Anne -Laure Descours, Ghislain Houle, Mélanie Kau, Peter Lee, Karen Stuckey, and myself, Michael Kneeland. I ask for a motion and a seconder for the nomination of the Gildan Director Nominees.
My name is Sabrina Teixeira. I am shareholder and proxy holder, and I move that each of the following persons be nominated for election as a director of the company to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of the shareholders or until the successors are duly elected or appointed. The nominees are Michael Kneeland, Glenn Chamandy, Michener Chand lee, Anne- Laure Descours, Ghislain Houle, Mélanie Kau, Peter Lee, and Karen Stuckey.
My name is Jad Moussali. I'm a shareholder and proxy holder. I second the motion.
Thank you. If you did not vote on this item, please do so. Next item of business is the advisory vote on the company's approach to executive compensation set forth in the Management Information Circular. The full text of the advisory resolution is reproduced at page 13 of the Management Information Circular. The results of say on pay will not be binding to the Board. However, the Board will take into account the results together with the other comments we receive from shareholders when we consider the company's approach to executive compensation in the future. We are committed to continuing to engage directly with shareholders on this important topic. I ask for a motion and seconder.
My name is Anne St-Pierre. I'm a shareholder and proxy holder. I move that the resolution on the advisory vote on executive compensation set forth in the Management Information Circular be adopted.
My name is Jason DeHaan. I'm a shareholder and proxy holder. I second the motion.
Thank you. If you did not vote already on this item, please do so. That concludes the matters of business properly brought to this meeting. We will have a brief adjournment while we wait for the scrutineers' report. I received the scrutineers' report on the voting results and confirm the following. Regarding the election of directors, I am pleased to announce that Glenn Chamandy, Michener Chandl ee, Anne-Laure Descours, Ghislain Houle, Mélanie Kau, Peter Lee, Karen Stuckey, and I, Michael Kneeland, have been duly elected directors of the company. I'm also pleased to report that the advisory resolution on the company's approach to executive compensation and the resolutions for the appointment of KPMG LLP have all been carried. Detailed results for each vote will be available shortly on SEDAR + and EDGAR and Gildan websites. This completes the business of the agenda of the annual meeting.
Now, before we move to our business and financial update and go into the question period, I ask for a motion and a seconder to terminate the formal part of this meeting.
My name is Jad Moussali. I'm a shareholder and proxy holder. I move to terminate the meeting.
My name is Suzanne Adams. I'm a shareholder and proxy holder. I second the motion.
Thank you. I declare the formal part of the annual meeting now terminated. Before the question period starts, Glenn Chamandy and Luca Barile would like to say a few words.
Thank you. Good morning. Time flies. It's been a year, and it's hard to believe how fast it's gone. Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining us today. I'm going to present our achievements for 2024 against our Gildan Sustainable Growth Strategy, and Luca will present and provide an overview of our financial performance for 2024 and Q1. Next slide, please. 2024 was a great year for Gildan with about 45% total shareholder return. It was a phenomenal year. Our performance is really a result of executing on our GSG strategy. In 2024, we're also very proud to celebrate our 40th anniversary as well as our 25th year being listed on the New York Stock Exchange. We had an opportunity to go ring the bell. For myself, it was the fourth time, and it was really exciting.
I would say that this past year is a real testament to the strength and the dedication of our overall global management team. Next page, please. I am going to provide a few more details on our Gildan Sustainable Growth Strategy. The strategy focuses on three pillars: capacity, innovation, and ESG. We provided a three-year outlook for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 period, and it calls for mid-single-digit sales growth top line, expanded operating margins from the base of 2024, EPS growth in the mid-teens, a 5% capital investment each year for the three years approximately, and continued share buyback using our balance sheet with a debt leverage between one and a half and two and a half times. Next page, please.
We've made substantial progress on our first pillar, which is capacity, and it's really positioned us, I think, in our investments have really positioned us and widened the gap against our competitors and the competitive landscape. To start with, we've spent a lot of money in modernizing our U.S. yarn operations, and that really is providing us a platform really to execute on our innovation strategy, but also at the same time to allow us to reduce our cost structure. We ramped up the first phase of our Bangladesh facility, and the plant was running at 75% of its overall capacity at end of the year. It's now running at full capacity as we speak.
This is really strengthening our cost structure because it's primarily going to be producing our fashion or our ring-spun T-shirts, which is going to give us a competitive advantage and reduce our overall cost structure. We also have room to, it's also diversified our manufacturing footprint, and we have room and all the infrastructure in place today to build the second facility when required. At the same time as building up Bangladesh, we actually are maximizing and optimizing our Central American footprint. As we shifted some of our ring-spun type products to fill up our Bangladesh facility, and that's one of the bigger growth drivers in Gildan today, we've also optimized Central America to provide more fleece products as we continue to grow that category as well.
We're well positioned in Central America, and we just announced yesterday that we're looking for ways even to improve on that and to expand further in our Central America facilities. Furthermore, we enhanced really our availability by allowing us to expand our capacity, build our cost position, and ultimately availability is the number one criteria for Gildan in terms of success and sales. We're building up on our availability, which has proven to, as we've seen in our POS and our sales performance, is really a function of our positioning. Next slide, please. Turning to innovation, it's another key cornerstone in our GSG strategy. In 2024, we launched probably the largest pipeline of innovation in the company's history, starting off with what we call our soft cotton technology.
For those of you who know, we make different types of products, and our number one selling volume shirt is what we call basic. It's basics. It's made from a typical type of yarn. With the modernization of our yarn facilities, we were able to basically really use the technology and the experience of the team that we have to convert the equipment. This is proprietary to Gildan, where we converted the equipment and are now able to make our products as soft and comfortable to wear really as our ring-spun products. That's all at the same price. That's really driving market share. It's giving us a competitive positioning, and we're excited, and it's continuing to roll out, and it's continuing to drive more market share. Last year in Q1, we were down still in basics. In Q2, we were flat.
In Q3, we were basically up a couple of points. By the time we hit Q4, we were seeing 10% growth in revenues in that segment. Another, I think, fantastic opportunity for us is something called plasma printing. For those of you who know, what's grown our industry, Gildan used to be only selling in the printware side of the business, used to be only selling B2B. What happened was that the market started moving through e-commerce from B2B to B2C and primarily through digital printing. For those of you who go on like a VistaPrint, Printful, you take a picture of your daughter who's having a birthday party, you send it to them, the next day you get a T-shirt. Those shirts are all digital printed.
With the technology and the way you digital print today is you take a T-shirt, and in order for the digital printing is an ink process versus a traditional screen printing, which is paint. Okay, it's almost like it's plastic or paint. That ink basically needs to be applied on the T-shirt. What happens is you have to put a primer on the garment. When you put that primer and then you apply the digital printing, that's the way the process works. With our technology that we've developed, which will be put on all of our products over time, is being rolled out this year and into 2026, we have eliminated the need to put that primer on. Some colors will still need it, but for some colors, we will not need it.
Maybe in all, we'll need about a third or 50% of the amount of primer they needed. That primer is the largest portion of the cost of actually digital printing. The equipment that actually digital prints now can produce a lot more volume. We have a competitive advantage that our shirts will not only look better and feel better because that primer basically is like thick, it's plastic, it doesn't feel good on the shirt. Our shirts will feel better, they'll print better, and they'll cost less for those people that do the digital printing. These are the types of innovations that are really going to drive share and allow us really, I think, to create a competitive differentiation between ourselves and our competition. Historically, Gildan has always taken its low-cost manufacturing, put it into better prices, and taken market share.
Our strategy now as we go forward, as the company matures, is to take our low-cost manufacturing and invest it back into innovation and create a competitive advantage against us and our competition. Another area where we've done many different types of innovation is in our Comfort Colors brand. That's our fastest-growing brand in Gildan's line. Last year, it grew over 40%. It's a nostalgic-looking shirt. It's all the difference between a Comfort Colors and a Gildan. Gildan gets dyed and sewn. This shirt gets dyed into white, it gets sewn, and then we put it back into a machine. When it comes out of the machine, it looks like the shirt that you've had in your drawer for the last four years. It's your favorite T-shirt. That's why people love it. It's soft, it's weathered, and it's fantastic.
We're allowed to put all kinds of different treatments on these shirts. We've developed Pigment Pure, we've developed a denim-type look. All these different types of features, there's probably like 10 different types of processes we've put on there. That's what's really driving that brand. We're continuing to grow. In Q1, we've had double-digit growth as well. Next page, please. The third pillar for us is our ESG. ESG is embedded in the fundamentals of the company. It's been embedded for the last 25 years. Before people were talking about ESG, ESG for Gildan was really a way for us to continue reducing our costs. We invested in biomass. We have a wastewater treatment plant that basically is all fed by gravity and bacteria.
All the things that we've done in the past have really led Gildan to be a leader in ESG. Now the world's caught up to Gildan basically from an ESG perspective. We've got a 20-year track record proven. It's embedded in the culture of our people, our community, our products, and our manufacturing footprint. We've been well recognized for all of our achievements in ESG over the years. In conclusion, I'd like to say that we're in a challenging environment. Gildan will continue to focus on the things that we control because that's been a success for us from the day we started. We're going to continue to leverage our GSG strategy and execute and create the long-term shareholder value. Our strategy is really built, again, on the backs of the dedication of our global management team.
I'd like to thank everybody who's here. I'd like to thank our management team for a great year, the support that we've had, our board. Michael, I think thank you as well. With that, I'd like to pass it over to Luca to give us a financial overview. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Glenn, and good morning, everyone. I will provide a recap of our 2024 financial performance, a brief summary of the results we reported yesterday for the first quarter, as well as the full year outlook, and then conclude with a few comments before I turn it back over to Michael. Starting with 2024, I fully echo Glenn's view that it was a strong year.
If we start at the top left-hand side of the page, you can see that net sales came in at $3.3 billion, up 2% over 2023, in line with our guidance of low single-digit growth, which was underscored by a 6% growth in our activewear business, partly offset by an expected decline in our underwear and hosiery category. Excluding the phase-out of the Under Armour business, our consolidated net sales would have been up mid-single digits. We believe our top-line performance demonstrated resilience in a challenging environment, arising from inflation, high interest rates, and the impact on end demand, as well as the cautiousness by some of the customers around inventory management.
If we move to the upper right-hand side of the slide, the chart highlights that in parallel with record sales, we were able to deliver strong margins in 2024, with our operating margin coming in around 19% and our adjusted operating margin at 21%. We exceeded our original target range of 18-20%, reflecting our ability to maintain efficiencies gained from our back-to-basic strategy as we continue to execute on Gildan's sustainable growth strategy. Turning to the bottom section of the page, you can see that the strong sales and margins translated into strong diluted and adjusted diluted EPS of $2.46 and $3, respectively. Finally, our strong operating performance yielded robust free cash flow generation of $389 million for the year. Overall, we delivered strong results for the full year as we navigated a complex global macroeconomic environment. Next slide, please.
Turning to capital allocation, in 2024, we refined our targeted net debt leverage ratio to ensure a focused balance between supporting growth and returning capital to shareholders. While we've consistently been active in buying back our stock, 2024 was an exceptional year marked by repurchases totaling approximately 11% of our public float, or $756 million, alongside $133 million in dividends, bringing total capital return to shareholders to $889 million. On a cumulative basis over the past five years, we've returned over $2.3 billion in capital, reflecting our sustained commitment to shareholder return. In fact, over the past decade, we've repurchased approximately 40% of issued and outstanding shares. With regards to capital expenditures, we delivered on the investment we committed to, with a clear focus on the key pillars of our GSG strategy.
CapEx moderated closer to a normalized range of 5% of net sales as the construction of our facility in Bangladesh was completed. As Glenn highlighted, these important investments in our vertical integration and capacity reinforce our competitive advantage and position us well for future growth. In terms of our strategic priorities, investing in CapEx to drive organic growth and return capital to our shareholders through both dividends and share buybacks remain the core focus of our capital allocation strategy. Finally, maintaining a healthy balance sheet has always been central to our financial discipline at Gildan. As mentioned earlier, we have slightly increased our target leverage range to one and a half to two and a half times during 2024. We ended 2024 with leverage of 1.9 times, positioned at about the midpoint of our framework. Go to the next slide, please. Okay.
Turning to 2025, the slide summarizes our Q1 results, which we reported yesterday. Overall, very pleased with our performance. The quarter unfolded largely as we anticipated. With sales of $712 million, we're up 2.3% year- over- year, in line with guidance we provided. Excluding the impact of the Under Armour phase-out, net sales would be up mid-single digit. Our operating margin came in at 18.2% and our adjusted operating margin at 19%. That's up 100 basis points year- over- year, mainly due to strong gross margins. This was well ahead of our guidance for the quarter. We reported GAAP diluted EPS of $0.56, whereas adjusted diluted EPS came in at $0.59, reflecting the positive impact of the lower outstanding share base, offset by the negative impact of higher adjusted effective income tax rate versus the comparable quarter.
During the quarter, we continued to execute on our capital allocation priorities, and we repurchased 1.2 million shares and returned $62 million to shareholders. Overall, very pleased with the quarter. More importantly, we're encouraged by our execution and progress on our GSG strategy. With that, let's turn to strategy and outlook. Next slide, please. The next slide, 23, please. Okay. I'll just wait a moment. I'll continue. The slide will come up in a few minutes. If we turn to our outlook and our press release, which was issued yesterday, we maintained our guidance for 2025. While we continue to feel cautiously optimistic, we are committed to executing our GSG strategy.
Despite an evolving and challenging macroeconomic backdrop, we believe that our low-cost vertically integrated business model, along with our industry positioning and our demonstrated agility in operating in dynamic environments, underscores our confidence in reconfirming our guidance metrics for 2025, which are the following. We expect revenue growth for the full year to be up mid-single digits compared to 2024. Over the full year, adjusted operating margin is expected to be up approximately 50 basis points versus the level generated in 2024. We continue to expect adjusted diluted EPS per share in the range of $3.38-$3.58. That is up approximately 13%-19% year- over- year. Note that in our guidance, we have considered the impact of tariff measures in place on our operations as well as on industry demand, and in conjunction with the mitigation initiatives that are available to us.
Finally, we are expecting free cash flow to be above $450 million for 2025, with CapEx projected at approximately 5% of net sales. Overall, our continued execution of our GSG strategy is strengthening our competitive position and is reinforcing our confidence in achieving our objectives. Even with a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, we're confident that our resilient model and our strong industry position should support our continued financial performance. That concludes my prepared remarks. With that, I'll turn it over to Michael. Thank you.
Thank you, Glenn and Luca. Before concluding this meeting, we would be pleased to answer questions from any registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder who wishes to address the meeting. When asking a question, we would ask that you please indicate your name and entity you represent, if any, and confirm that you are a registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder. Please limit your questions to topics relating to today's subject matter and keep the questions short and to the point. Any questions? Before concluding this meeting, on behalf of the board of directors, I want to thank Gildan's management team and all the talented employees of Gildan who continue to show their focus, determination, and strength in making Gildan the leader it is today. On behalf of the board and the management team, I want to thank our shareholders for their confidence and support.
I will now declare this meeting terminated. Thank you.