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Gildan Activewear Inc. (GIL)

Q4 2025 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 26, 2026

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Gildan Activewear's 2025 Q4 Earnings Conference Call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Jessy Hayem, Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations and Global Communications. Please go ahead.

Jessy Hayem

Management

Thank you, Sarah. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our results for the fourth quarter and full year 2025 and initiated guidance for 2026. The company's management discussion and analysis and consolidated financial statements are expected to be filed with the Canadian securities and regulatory authorities and the U.S. Securities Commission today and will also be available on our corporate website. Now joining me on the call today are Glenn Chamandy, President and CEO of Gildan; Luca Barile, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; and Chuck Ward, Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. This morning, we'll take you through the results for the quarter and additional updates and then a question-and-answer session will follow. Before we begin, please take note that certain statements included in this conference call may constitute forward-looking statements, which involve unknown and known risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We refer you to the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities. During this call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS measures are provided in today's earnings release as well as our MD&A. Before I turn it over to Glenn, as you know, on December 1, 2025, the company completed the acquisition of HanesBrands. As such, the fourth quarter and full year 2025 results include HanesBrands' contribution from December 1, 2025 to December 28, 2025. Moreover, as announced this morning, the HanesBrands Australian business, which we refer to as HAA, has been classified as held for sale and reported as discontinued operations as of December 1, 2025, the date of closing of the HanesBrands acquisition. Unless otherwise indicated, the figures we will be discussing today are from continuing operations and therefore, exclude the results of the HAA business. And now I'll turn it over to Glenn.

Glenn Chamandy

Management

Thank you, Jessy, and good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining us today. I'd like to start the call by taking a moment and thanking our employees, both Gildan and Hanes for their dedication and commitment and outstanding execution through the year. I'd also like to acknowledge the loyalty of our customers and the ongoing support of our shareholders. As we highlighted in this morning's press release, 2025 was another important year for Gildan. And we concluded on a high note with record revenues from continuing operations of about $3.6 billion, strong adjusted operating margins of 21.5% and a year-over-year adjusted diluted EPS growth of 17% or adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations of $3.51, which includes the contribution of Hanes since December 1, the date of the closing of the acquisition. As we look ahead to 2026, we are very excited about the Hanes acquisition, which doubles our scale, combines iconic brands with our world-class, low-cost vertically integrated platform and unlocks a powerful engine for innovation and growth. Our global team's focus is now fully capturing the value of our expanded platform. In fact, the integration is well underway and progressing ahead of plan. Let me give you a few highlights about the progress we have made so far. Since the transaction closed, our teams have moved quickly and decisively with a strong focus on unlocking the significant value that we targeted, leveraging the scale and capabilities of the combined organizations. We've already begun our manufacturing footprint optimization. We made the decision to close that 2 Hanes textile factories in early 2026. Production volumes from these facilities will be relocated across our consolidated network in early 2026, leveraging Gildan's low cost structure and further accelerating our synergies. As a result, our capacity is tight in the short term. We…

Luca Barile

Management

Thank you, Glenn. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our fourth quarter and full year results. Let me start with the specifics of the quarter, then turn to our 2026 outlook and guidance. First, the quarterly results. As a reminder, HAA operations have been classified as held for sale and are therefore reported as discontinued operations as of the fourth quarter of 2025. We reported fourth quarter sales from continuing operations of $1.078 billion, up 31.3% year-over-year. Excluding Hanes' contribution of $217 million for the period from December 1 to December 28, 2025, organic growth was up 4.9%. Activewear sales grew 10.3% to $788 million, once again reflecting the Hanes acquisition and complemented by favorable mix and higher net selling prices. We saw solid sales to North American distributors and continued growth with national account customers, driven by our strong overall competitive positioning, new programs contribution and market share gains in key growth categories. We continue to see robust demand for Comfort Colors and our innovative pipeline continues to drive excitement with our new soft cotton technology and new brands such as Champion and ALLPRO. For the Innerwear category, which now includes hosiery, underwear and intimates, sales were up about 171% versus last year, primarily reflecting HanesBrands' contribution in December, offset by slightly lower volumes owing to continued broader market weakness. Turning to international markets. Sales were $68 million, up 5.1% year-over-year, primarily reflecting the acquisition, which was partially offset by demand softness across markets and more specifically in the U.K. On a full year 2025 basis, excluding HanesBrands' contribution of $217 million for the period from December 1 to December 28, 2025, net sales were up 4% year-over-year and in line with guidance. Furthermore, excluding the impact of the exit of the Under…

Jessy Hayem

Operator

Thank you, Luca. This concludes our prepared remarks, and now we'll be taking your questions. [Operator Instructions] usual, before moving to the Q&A session, I'd like to remind you to limit your questions to 2 and then we'll circle back for a second round if time permits. Sarah, you may begin the Q&A session, please.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Paul Lejuez with Citigroup.

Brandon Cheatham

Analyst

This is Brandon Cheatham on for Paul. I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the destocking that you're planning for the year. What is the cadence of that? Is it primarily hit 1Q ? And should we see that kind of rebound as the year progresses? And I just want to confirm, it sounds like this was driven by your capacity changes by shutting down those 2 facilities. It's not something that you're seeing in customer orders, so are some orders just going unfulfilled? Or are you kind of working hand-in-hand with your customers on that. And then I have a follow-up.

Glenn Chamandy

Management

I'll start with the first part of the question. So what we're doing is look at -- we communicated last year that we are increasing our internal capacity in Bangladesh and in Central America, obviously, in anticipation to support the Hanes integration. So there's a disconnect between what our ultimate capacity is and what our run rate is. So currently, we have all the capacity in place to support the closure of the 2 Hanes facilities. And these are -- they only had 2 facilities. So it's basically closing both of their textile facilities. And what we're currently doing is we're bringing that product into our Gildan network. And obviously, we're ramping the volumes up to support the capacity that's in place. So the disconnect for us right now is that we're short on available inventory where we have a little bit available -- we have tightness of inventory as we move into 2026 that needs to be managed. So we're proactively reducing inventory in the channels to reflect that, which will ultimately should allow us to bring that inventory back up as we move into the later part of this year into '27. I'll maybe let Luca talk about the timing.

Luca Barile

Management

Yes. Thanks for your question. So I think in order to articulate the timing and really understand how this is impacting our guide, it's really important to understand the composition of the top line. Let me start by saying that as we understand the top line, the starting point is really our pro forma results for 2025, okay? And in other words, the pro forma results simulate as if the Hanes acquisition would have occurred the first day of '25. So our pro forma net sales are $6.089 billion. That excludes both the sales contribution of HanesBrands Australia, which is now classified as an asset held for sale and as a discontinued operation and the expiry of the transition service agreement at Hanes, which related to its divestiture of Champion, which was slightly over $100 million. So that's the starting point. From that point, effectively, both wholesale and retail are fundamentally growing. And they're growing off of that pro forma base in line with the expectations of our growth over the next 3 years of 3% to 5%. The wholesale growth vectors, they include growth in key categories: fleece, ring spun, Comfort Colors, brands like Champion, ALLPRO, the continuation of strong growth from national accounts, which includes some of our private label programs in fleece and [ T ] and items that contributed to our 75% of our organic growth in '25, that continues as we move into '26, continue to take share despite a fluid macroeconomic environment from our product innovation and some positive mix is also contributing to that accretion. On the retail side, growth is expected across all categories. It's primarily supported by sales share gains and expansion across key retail customers and channels. And it's complemented by the impact of some price that we took to…

Brandon Cheatham

Analyst

Got it. That's very helpful. And then just a follow-up. After you close those 2 Hanes facilities, what sales can you achieve with your current manufacturing capacity? And then when Bangladesh Phase 2 comes online, should we think about that as an incremental $500 million in sales capacity? Or has anything changed there?

Glenn Chamandy

Management

So we have enough sales capacity today to support the guide of the 3% to 5% over the 3-year period. And once we bring Bangladesh 2 online, obviously, we'll be able to support '28 and '29 at least with the level of capacity. Now it's a little bit different mix associated because we're going to -- depending on what product and what mix goes into that textile facility. But I would say that we definitely have visibility on enough capacity to support '28 and '29 with the development of the second phase of Bangladesh, and we can support '26 and '27 going into '28 with what we have available to us right now. And that's the part that's important to understand is that we did already put -- embedded into our guidance of CapEx guidance in 2025. We did an expansion throughout our network. We're expanding again in DR '26, which is embedded into our 3% CapEx number that we outlined as well as the development of our Bangladesh facility. That's all embedded in our 3% to 4% CapEx number. But the important thing to understand is that everything is in place. It's now the disconnect. We couldn't start ramping up production in 2025 in anticipation for the Hanes closure. We had to wait for the closure to happen. Otherwise, we would have been consuming more working capital, et cetera, et cetera. So the way you have to look at it is that all this capacity is in place. We're running at a certain run rate today. We're closing the 2 Hanes facilities. That product amongst our product has to be sort of manufactured. And there's a disconnect between the time it takes us to sort of develop and grow the volumes within the capacity that's already there. And that's sort of why we're managing these inventories in the channel in the short term. But that's really a short-term situation, and it will work itself through as we move through this year. And the other important point is that when we look at synergies, obviously, the synergy from Hanes' cost structure to the Gildan cost structure, that's a synergy which is quantifiable, but scale is also a huge synergy for us right now. And as we continue to optimize and grow the Gildan footprint, we're continuing to lower our cost structure and be better positioned, I think, as we continue to go forward. And we're very excited about where we are.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Jay Sole with UBS.

Jay Sole

Analyst · UBS.

Great. Maybe, Glenn, I want to just follow up on that. I think you mentioned in the prepared remarks that you see $100 million in synergies this year, $100 million next year and at least $50 million in 2028. Can you just talk about what you're seeing that allowed you to raise the guidance? And sort of do you see opportunities even beyond in 2028 versus kind of what was stated in the press release today?

Glenn Chamandy

Management

Yes. Well, look, I mean, there's definitely an ongoing opportunity for us to continue reducing and increasing the synergy levels. I mean, as we go into this, obviously, when we called out in the beginning, we said it was $200 million, potentially up to $300 million. What we do is we just want to make sure that we articulate what we really have clear line of sight of. And right now, we have clear line of sight of $200 million, and we're continuing to move forward and see if we can bring that $200 million up. Now as far as the opportunity above and beyond the 3-year period, there's things like Bangladesh, for example. There's still a lot of fabric that is being sourced outside, and that will be internalized as we go forward and bring on Bangladesh. So we know that Bangladesh will bring us additional savings and synergies as we move past the 3-year period. So we're really comfortable on the $250 million and potentially taking that up from there as we move forward, and we'll communicate that as we move along. And every quarter, we'll give you an update, but we're effectively looking to get all these synergies. And this is not really a back-to-basic story. This is basically just us hunting and tackling and going through things. I mean there was a lot of complexity in the business that we're streamlining. And that's part of what we've taken into consideration even a little bit this year as we look at it. There's some businesses that -- and segments that they shouldn't really be in. And these are all areas that we're looking to streamline and reduce SG&A complexity. So overall, we're very excited. And one thing I'd like to really point out about the synergies, it's…

Luca Barile

Management

Yes. And maybe, Glenn, I'd just like to add, I think, Jay, from an earnings profile, right, in terms of our guidance that we're really encouraged, right, with the $4.20 to $4.40 of adjusted EPS, which includes $100 million of synergies for 2026. So the actions we're taking, accelerating and increasing our synergies to $250 million with $100 million in 2026, $100 million in '27 and $50 million in 2028, we're very encouraged by that.

Jay Sole

Analyst · UBS.

Well, if I can just follow up on that because there's a lot of important points there and Glenn, the investment in the product, I think I'm glad you brought that up. I think there's a thought out there. HanesBrands hadn't had a lot of sales growth looking backwards over the last few years, their history. I mean, do you see it the Hanes -- the portfolio of brands that you're acquiring with HanesBrands, do you see that as a portfolio that you can grow over time? And because not everybody has that -- is aware of that.

Glenn Chamandy

Management

Right, exactly. So one of the things I think is important is that, first of all, we're going to hold an investor conference sometime in the fall. Jessy, Luca and myself are going to nail down that date because when we can explain to investors, shareholders really our strategy, the opportunity at hand, I mean the opportunity is -- we think is quite large. Hanes has had declines, but the declines have been in certain categories. I mean, intimates has not performed, but that's a category which is sort of a decline because of the consumer, it's a department store driven. Department stores have obviously declined over the years. It's also a consumer that's basically changing their purchase habits from going to structured to unstructured product offerings. So there's different elements of why and where the sales have dissipated. But the Innerwear business is still taking share. I mean, HanesBrand as a company is gaining market share. They gained market share in 2025. So far this year and the beginning of the year, they're continuing to gain share. And they're doing that, I think, without really the type of investment that was required for the long term. I mean that was sort of, I would say, the challenges that the company did have. They weren't able to invest the capital and innovation that Gildan or manufacturing capacity. So when you take an iconic brand like Hanes and you combine that with the vertically integrated low-cost manufacturing, it's an exciting proposition. So we're really going to -- we're going to change the way underwear is being sold in the United States. I can tell you that with the development of our plan, we're going to explain all this to the market. But we are going to be investing in technology, innovation,…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Brian Morrison with TD Cowen.

Brian Morrison

Analyst · TD Cowen.

Glenn, you mentioned the Q1 destock recovery later in this year and next. So why no change to the 2028 EPS CAGR guide with the increase in aggregate synergies to $250 million that would be another $0.20 to $0.25. Is this a rounding error? Are you providing some cushion in that guidance? Maybe it's more appropriate for Luca.

Glenn Chamandy

Management

Well, to understand is obviously -- Luca, do you want to?

Luca Barile

Management

Yes, sure. So thanks for your question. So look, as we articulated in the press release, we're maintaining our view on the 3-year guide, right, 3% to 5% on the top line in terms of the CAGR, low 20% range adjusted EPS and 3% to 4% of net sales from a CapEx perspective and so on. So effectively, we've maintained that. You're right. We've increased the synergies to $250 million, $100 million in '26, $100 million in '27 and $50 million in '28. And our 3-year guidance was put out really ahead of the increased synergy number. But there's puts and takes. But the ultimate takeaway is that we're very comfortable with what we put out. We're continuing to chase the performance and push for it. And as Glenn articulated, we're not stopping there, right? We're going after more if it can come. So today, what we're saying is we're comfortable with that top line CAGR. We're comfortable with that adjusted EPS growth over the 3 years, and we're encouraged by the synergies that we're estimating to date.

Brian Morrison

Analyst · TD Cowen.

Okay. And then maybe just from a high-level basis, maybe just update us with how far down the road the Australian process is. Obviously, you announced this back in August, you had closure of the [ HBI ] transaction in December. Is it well underway? Or is it really just commencing?

Luca Barile

Management

So again, on the HAA process, first of all, the takeaways, look, we're only going to proceed with something that if there's value, the terms are attractive for us. It's in the best interest of the company and our stakeholders. So that's the headline. The other thing is that we've engaged our bankers. We're within a process. The process is unfolding as planned. But we don't intend to provide any further updates on that regarding the sale or transaction until it's either approved by the Board or the process is concluded. So it's underway. It's progressing as planned, and that's what I can share at this time.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Ian Liu with Scotiabank.

Yiyang Liu

Analyst · Scotiabank.

My first question is on hosiery, underwear or innerwear segment. I was wondering if you could help us impact the performance this quarter, like organically, how did Gildan and Hanes Innerwear business perform? How much did the timing of shipment from Q3 into Q4 helped? And maybe what other factors that drove the result? Just trying to understand the underlying business performance during the holiday season as well.

Chuck Ward

Analyst · Scotiabank.

Okay. Thanks for the question, Ian. I think the good thing is, as we said back in Q3 of last year, we said that the Innerwear business would improve in Q4, and it did improve as we suspected quarter-over-quarter. Organically, we were effectively flat in Innerwear for Q4. But again, great improvement over Q3, just as we expected. One thing Glenn pointed out is both the -- our legacy and organic business as well as the Hanes business has continued to gain share in Innerwear and is performing quite well, not only through Q4, but as we've entered into Q1. So we feel good about where we're positioned in the category and our outlook on 2026, which Luca had mentioned in his comments. So again, I think we feel good about where we are. We're going to continue to drive share there. We're going to continue, as Glenn mentioned, to look at product, where can we innovate, where can we make changes, where can we improve our customers' experience. And we think that's going to bode well for us going forward.

Yiyang Liu

Analyst · Scotiabank.

That's helpful. And then my second question is on the sales growth outlook. But could you maybe provide a bit more color on like the composition of the drivers of the organic growth expectations outside of the temporary inventory reduction. Maybe break it down by your expectations on Activewear and Innerwear or retail and wholesale and volume and pricing?

Luca Barile

Management

Yes. Thanks for your question. So yes, so the revenue guide for 2026, right, between $6 billion to $6.2 billion. So as we spoke about earlier, fundamentally, from a wholesale and retail perspective, there's growth that's in the plan. That's offset by the initiatives, the proactive initiatives we're taking with reduction of inventories as well as, look, as we continue to look at the business and try to optimize the commercial mix and just really focusing on margin accretive growth. So when you kind of peel back the onion and you say, well, where is that growth coming from for wholesale and retail, they don't come as a surprise. We've got growth in key categories, right, fleece, ring spun products, Comfort Colors, the Champion brand, ALLPRO, the basics driven by innovation, strong national account growth, right, our GLB customers. We have the wraparound of programs that contributed to 75% of our growth in 2025 that are coming into 2026, and we have that visibility on the same type of composition as we move forward. So those really underpin the growth. And then when you take a look at retailers, really the retail growth across the categories that make up the innerwear, right, in terms of underwear, hosiery and so forth, it's across our key customers and channels. And where is that coming from? It's through share gains, expansion of space and so forth and the wraparound of programs. So that should give you a little bit of color on that front. And so we're pleased with the $6 billion to $6.2 billion of the top line guide for 2026. And ultimately, with all of that contribution and the contribution of the synergy capture, we're going to see sequential improvement as we go through the year in terms of our operating margin and effectively deliver that -- expect to deliver that adjusted EPS of $4.20 to $4.40, which is up 20% to 25% versus our reported 2025 results of $3.51. So we're encouraged by the growth profile.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Martin Landry with Stifel.

Martin Landry

Analyst · Stifel.

Glenn, I'm just trying to understand mechanically how the integration will happen. You're talking about closing the 2 facilities that Hanes was operating. Hanes had similar revenue levels as you did. So help me understand how are you going to cram 2 big facilities into what you had, like I think you said in excess of 10% capacity that you mentioned last call. So like how is this going to work? Are you going to use third-party providers as well?

Glenn Chamandy

Management

No. We -- all this will be internalized in our own facilities. What we said last year is that we went through an expansion in our Bangladesh facility. We expanded it by 50% to be able to support the volumes of Hanes. We had about 10% excess capacity in our system, and we said we added another about 10% in Central America. That's what we communicated to you during 2025. We're also going to be adding additional capacity in our facility in DR in 2026 by moving some of their equipment into our facility. So overall, we have enough ample capacity to support. Now you have to understand there's a big difference between Underwear and Activewear. Obviously, in terms of the amount of fabric and material it takes. It takes 1 pound to make an undergarment it takes 7 pounds to make -- sorry, take 7 pounds to make an average mix, 15 pounds to make a sweatshirt, 1 pound to make an undergarment. So in terms of poundage, when we look at capacity, you have to understand the mix associated with that type of product offering. So overall, we're very excited. We have the capacity in place. We just have to get the volumes within those facilities running at the right capacity. And that's sort of the point of reflection here is that the capacity was installed and running at a certain rate. And now what we're doing is we're closing their facilities, there are 2 facilities, which will be shuttered sometime at the end of Q1. And then that product, amongst our product will be in our facilities and then therefore, we'll be a little tight as we continue to ramp up to the level of production run rate that supported the capacity that's installed. And that's the…

Martin Landry

Analyst · Stifel.

Okay. That's helpful. And then, Luca, I don't know if you quantified it, but in your $6 billion to $6.2 billion revenue guide, what's the impact of that inventory reduction?

Luca Barile

Management

So as we went through the guide for the $6 billion to $6.2 billion, again, the takeaway is that fundamentally, there's growth in the range that's consistent with what we're expecting over the 3 years of 3% to 5% across both wholesale and retail. As that comes into play, there's 2 factors that are effectively offsetting, which is, one, the proactive reduction of the inventories; and two, to a lesser extent, the -- as we continue to optimize the operating footprint on the commercial mix. So I would say it's closer to 2/3 on the first item and 1/3 on the second item. And that's what yields a guidance of $6 billion to $6.2 billion against the pro forma of 2025, which is $6.089 billion.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Vishal Shreedhar with National Bank.

Vishal Shreedhar

Analyst · National Bank.

Luca, I was just hoping to -- obviously, when you do a deal like this, things shift and things change. But at closing, my understanding was that management previously articulated leverage of about in the mid-2s, and you currently have 3. Maybe you can help me understand that.

Luca Barile

Management

Yes, absolutely. So when we did close the -- first of all, we closed the transaction earlier than expected, right? We were saying that it was end of the year but really more in the first quarter. So we closed it earlier than expected, which we're really pleased because now we have the keys and we can get going with our integration plan. That's number one. Number two, the elements that contributed to a leverage of around 3x or 3x at the end of the year. It was effectively slightly higher debt levels at closing. And also in terms of the EBITDA contribution of the EBITDA pro forma at the time, there was adjustments for differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP and so forth that came into play. So we just shored up the number. But the takeaway here is we're at 3x leverage today. In the guide, we're going to generate over $850 million of free cash flow. That is a big number. And with that, we are putting that towards ensuring that we can delever this transaction as quickly as possible. We did come out in the original announcement saying that we would deliver between 12 to 18 months. We are trying to deliver as quickly as we can, maintain our strong balance sheet. We're an investment-grade balance sheet, which is valuable to us and also valuable to our customers. So the focus is on delevering. And when we get to around the midpoint of our targeted range of 1.5 to 2.5x, we'll then return to buying back stock. So we put that on pause. So we feel very comfortable with where the balance sheet is today with the cash flow generation that's within the guide. And to complement all of that is also our HAA sale process, which would also further accelerate that delivery. So we're comfortable with where the leverage is, and we're attacking it.

Vishal Shreedhar

Analyst · National Bank.

Okay. And with respect to the EPS CAGR, my -- so we took -- you took up the synergies, you chatted about that. But my understanding was previously management had indicated it would be 20% CAGR with something materially exceeding 20% in the first year. And at the time that was given, HBI's consideration for Australia was understood. So just wondering how that's changed and what the thinking around that has changed?

Luca Barile

Management

Yes. Sure, Vishal. So it's a good question. I think nothing has changed really is the way to think about it because we're at $4.20 to $4.40 off of our $3.51. So we're growing between 20% to 25%. At the time, the discussion was around the consolidated entity. So now we've concluded our strategic review of HAA. HAA is now reported as a discontinued operation. And you'll see as it gets reported, HAA is projected to contribute $0.21 of discontinued operations. That $0.21 is not in our guide of $4.20 to $4.40. So if you would aggregate the 2, we would be exactly in line with what we had communicated. So the differential is simply HAA being recorded as asset held for sale and a discontinued operation.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Stephen MacLeod with BMO Capital Markets.

Stephen MacLeod

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets.

I just had a couple of follow-up questions. The first one is with respect to the Q1 inventory reduction. How do you balance that with potential sell-through challenges? Like do you expect that lower inventory will lead to stockouts in some situations or not?

Glenn Chamandy

Management

No. No, we feel comfortable that -- and we're very prudent about our approach. And the inventory is going to be dispersed, like we said, through channels. So it's not particularly in one place. And we have good inventory levels in the channel because that's what's one of the things that have been allowing us to generate share. So we think we can optimize those levels. We have the capability of doing it and really not affect the POS at all. We're very comfortable. We have very good in-stock levels. Our percentages -- and when you look in stock, it's not just the sheer volume we have in stock, but we really manage it by the percentage of the quality of that in-stock. So our quality of our in-stock today is very, very high. So you can -- so sometimes you have good inventories, but your quality is not good because you're missing something. Like for example, we've been chasing Comfort Colors now for the last 3 years because it's been growing by 40% a year. So -- but during 2025, we brought that inventories to an appropriate level to support the revenue of that as we increase our capacity. So overall, we think that we're in a very good position, and we don't see any negative impact from POS. And that answers your question.

Stephen MacLeod

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets.

Okay. That's great. And then just my second one would be, I don't know if you disclosed it in the notes, I haven't seen it, but can you give a little bit of color as to what Hanes Australia adjusted EBITDA would have been in Q4?

Luca Barile

Management

So what we've provided is in terms of -- for 2026, we know the sales of $675 and the contribution is expected to be $0.21 of earnings. With respect to the fourth quarter and the disclosures, you can see the sales that it contributed to the fourth quarter, which was around $70 million, and it contributed $0.04 of earnings to discontinued operations.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Chris Li with Desjardin Capital Markets.

Christopher Li

Analyst · Desjardin Capital Markets.

My first question is just did you see any sequential improvement in terms of industry demand for both the wholesale and retail channel in Q4? And then what is your outlook that underpins your guidance for 2026 in terms of industry demand?

Luca Barile

Management

Thanks, Chris. I mean, I think overall, the market was okay in Q4 on the dollar -- from a dollar perspective. The units were down slightly, but we're continuing to see higher value products that we've talked about, for example, Comfort Colors, Champion, ALLPRO. So we're continuing to see where the market has been driven by those higher-value products, and we're continuing to grow those and take share. So -- and overall, the wholesale and retail markets were a little bit softer than we expected, but we gained share in key categories, and we continue to go and grow on that. As we look at 2026, we think we're going to be flat to up low single digits plus our new programs. So the way we get the growth we've talked about is we have that plus we have new programs. Not only do we have the wraparound from some of the programs that we've talked about in 2025, but also new programs in 2026 from -- everything from Champion and ALLPRO to some GLB programs as well as some new products and categories. You probably saw that we've talked about accessories, we've talked about scrubs. And then again, new retail programs, not only in Activewear, but Innerwear and not only in Hanes but also some private label programs as well. So we feel really good about where we are as we go into 2026 with those new programs and what we think the market assumption is.

Christopher Li

Analyst · Desjardin Capital Markets.

And my follow-up question is for Glenn. You mentioned earlier that Hanes the U.S. intimate business has been underperforming because of structural factors. Is that potentially something you would consider divesting at some point as you continue to integrate the business within the Gildan platform?

Glenn Chamandy

Management

No, at this point in time, look, we think that it's sort of gone to a trough. I mean, there's 1 brand, which has really been underperforming the most of the brands that they do offer. I think they have a plan to stabilize that and reinvigorate it. So look, time will tell, but we think that it's definitely not going to be a growth driver for the company, but we think that we can elevate it, improve margins and stabilize the business basically that's where we are today, and we'll see how that goes as we go forward.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Ryland Conrad with RBC Capital Markets.

Ryland Conrad

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets.

Just on the operating margin guidance. Could you speak a bit to the assumed underlying margin expansion for stand-alone Gildan business? And just what the puts and takes are there for 2026?

Luca Barile

Management

Yes. Thanks for your question. So for '26, the adjusted operating margin guidance, right, approximately 20%. The Gildan's based profile was obviously higher than the Hanes' base profile. So you have the 2 coming together, sequential improvement as you go through the year, given the synergies are coming in and so forth. But the growth drivers to the strong operating margin at the end of the day, remain unchanged. If you take a look at what's been driving the operating margin performance at Gildan, we've had the optimization of our Central American capacity, our yarn optimization, the Bangladesh cost advantage that's really bolstered the gross margin, discipline around SG&A. So that's really the base. Then you tack on the Hanes profile and then you tack on the synergies that are coming in 2026 and that's effectively what's going to drive the 20%. And with that strong 20% delivering the earnings of $4.20 to $4.40. I do want to reiterate again that the quality of those earnings are strong because of the cash flow generation that we have in the plan, which is over $850 million. So I would say it's the usual suspects that we're driving Gildan's margin that will continue, plus the synergies.

Ryland Conrad

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets.

Okay. And then just on Comfort Colors expanding into new categories this year, is there anything you could share maybe on initial conversations with your customers there? And with respect to your net sales guidance for this year, like are there any assumptions baked into that around the contribution from those categories?

Chuck Ward

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets.

Yes, Ryland, I think first on the expansions of Comfort Colors, One, the brand has continued to have consumer that really seeks the brand has an emotional connection to the brand. And it's going to open up our opportunity to go into other categories and things like the accessories. We did have our show out in Long Beach earlier in the year where we launched hats and bags. And what I can tell you from the reception perspective is from the minute to show up to the minute the show closed, there was a long line waiting at the booth to get a chance to win one and to see them. And the feedback -- I was there on the floor with the customers, the feedback of the product was great. And so I think that customer gives us leeway to go into other categories, and we think we can continue to do that. And so we'll continue to grow that brand. Yes, there's contribution in our forecast for that. I would say it's muted in the first part of the year -- or I'm sorry, throughout the year because it's -- we're introducing the new category as well. So -- but yes, there is contribution. The other brand that we're spending a lot of time with is ALLPRO. ALLPRO we've talked about that brand as well. It's growing. It's from a low base, but a great reception from the brand, and it allows us to play more in performance in corporate wear and go into different categories that way. Champion we talked about our license with Champion. It opens up other areas as well and fanwear, sportswear, kind of from the sports heritage brand that it is. So really, what we're trying to do as we look out at the market overall is how we continue to expand that addressable market for us and so that we can reach into other areas.

Operator

Operator

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I will turn the call to Jessy Hayem for closing remarks.

Jessy Hayem

Operator

Thank you. Once 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 day.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.