Gildan shareholders reinstated fired founder Glenn Chamandy; he then bought HanesBrands

Gildan Activewear, the Montreal-based maker of blank t-shirts and socks founded by Glenn and Greg Chamandy in 1984, stunned investors on December 11, 2023: the board announced Glenn Chamandy had left and would be replaced by Vince Tyra, a former Fruit of the Loom executive. The board said the firing followed serious disagreements over strategy - Chamandy wanted to pursue multibillion-dollar acquisitions and issued an ultimatum, which directors judged too risky. The shares fell 11% that day.

Browning West, a Los Angeles fund holding about 5%, launched a formal campaign to replace the board and reinstate Chamandy, and drew backing from other large holders. The fight escalated: in March 2024 Gildan's board put the whole company up for sale after a special committee review, with RBC and Goldman Sachs contacting bidders, while Chamandy publicly campaigned against a sale. Proxy adviser ISS endorsed Browning West's entire eight-person slate, which included Chamandy himself.

At the May 28, 2024 annual meeting the incumbents quit in advance and did not stand for re-election; shareholders, with 80.76% of shares represented, elected Browning West's nominees. Chamandy resumed as president and CEO, and the new board moved fast: within days it raised the buyback authorization from 5% to 10% of the public float, and in August 2025 Gildan agreed to buy HanesBrands - Hanes, Maidenform, Bali - for $2.2 billion, about $4.4 billion with debt.

Browning West's entire slate was elected; founder Chamandy resumed as CEO; the buyback cap doubled to 10% of float; HanesBrands was bought for $2.2B in 2025.

The contest was a referendum on a written strategy: Chamandy campaigned openly on the acquisition-led growth the board had rejected.

A determined 5% holder anchored the challenge, and other large shareholders lined up behind the dissident slate, so a single annual meeting settled control.

ISS's endorsement of the entire dissident slate signaled that governance, not just strategy, was on the ballot.

The reinstated CEO signaled direction within days - a doubled buyback, then the HanesBrands bid - so voters could see the strategy being executed.

A board that fires a founder should expect the founder's thesis to be tested in public. Gildan's owners preferred his growth bet to the board's caution - and voted every director out to get it.

Chamandy's return flipped the board's caution into the founder's playbook. In August 2025, fifteen months after the vote, Gildan agreed to buy HanesBrands in cash and stock - the kind of transformative acquisition the previous board had fired him over. Hanesbrands shareholders approved the sale that November, and the combination gave Gildan household-name innerwear brands alongside its blank-apparel manufacturing base. The episode stands as a rare case of shareholders firing a board specifically to rehire a founder.