Gildan Activewear Inc. CEO Glenn Chamandy in Montreal in 2024.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Gildan Activewear Inc. GIL-T is under scrutiny from an American short seller who alleges the Canadian T-shirt manufacturer is inflating sales, sending Gildan’s shares tumbling 19 per cent Tuesday and wiping about $3-billion from its market value.
Jehoshaphat Research, a Florida-based investment firm, published a report Tuesday alleging Gildan has been incentivizing clients to order more product than they may need in a given quarter to boost Gildan’s revenue.
“We believe this company has been inflating its revenues through channel stuffing for years but is finally running out of room to do so, and this will expose the weaker revenue and earnings profile of the business,” Jehoshaphat wrote in its report.
In a statement Tuesday, the company said it is “confident that its current disclosure provides its investors with accurate and comprehensive information regarding Gildan, including with respect to its financial information and governance practices.”
Gildan also reiterated its fiscal 2026 earnings guidance, which previously estimated full-year revenue of US$6-billion to US$6.2-billion and free cash flow above US$850-million. The company did not return a request for comment for this story.
Gildan’s shares closed at $70.39 apiece Tuesday, down 18.75 per cent. The company now has a $13-billion market value.
Jehoshaphat has a history in Canada, releasing a report in September, 2025, alleging subprime lender goeasy Ltd. was sitting on more bad loans than it had previously disclosed. A few months later, goeasy announced surging loan losses and suspended its dividend. The stock is now down 75 per cent over the last year.
Jehoshaphat said its short position in Gildan, or the number of shares it is betting on, is worth 4 per cent of Gildan’s public float – another name for the portion of shares that are publicly traded.
In its 60-page report on Gildan, Jehoshaphat said it talked to seven former Gildan employees, customers or distributors – but did not specify their rank or tenure with their respective companies – and alleged Gildan would ask clients to consider taking in more product than they may have needed in a given quarter. To encourage them to do so, Gildan would allegedly extend the clients’ payment period to 90 days or 120 days.
Jehoshaphat also alleged the practice has been tough to spot at Gildan because it moves a number of its accounts receivable off of its balance sheet by selling them in a common practice known as factoring. Buyers of factored receivables pay an upfront fee, usually at a discount, and then take responsibility for collecting the receivables.
Gildan has attracted investor and media attention in recent years following a high-profile fight between chief executive officer Glenn Chamandy and the company’s board of directors. Mr. Chamandy was removed as CEO by the board in December, 2023, after the directors said they gradually lost faith in his leadership.
However, some Gildan investors fought back and eventually won a campaign to get the board to resign and to have Mr. Chamandy reinstated as CEO.
Back in power, Mr. Chamandy announced the acquisition of HanesBrands Inc. for US$2.2-billion in August, 2025, which included the assumption of roughly US$2-billion in net debt that had weighed on the company’s balance sheet.
Montreal-based Gildan is perhaps best known as a maker of blank, customizable T-shirts and fleece sweatshirts for wholesalers, while U.S.-based Hanes has built its name over a century in underwear and undershirts sold in stores.
With a file from Nicolas Van Praet