Gildan released their third quarter results and you can read them in French or English here. They appear to be in a steady course to take over the world garment trade. Of note are the following:

• They secured a major underwear contract, private label for their largest customer. Fruit of the Loom/Jerzees and Hanes lost most of the market share for imprintable garments but were holding steady on underwear, but apparently not any longer.
• Gildan international imprintable sales are up 28%. That’s a big number, hence my comment about taking over the world garment trade.
• They had a stock buyback but note that it, “will not preclude Gildan from continuing to pursue complementary acquisitions.” They bought Anvil, American Apparel, Alstyle, Gold Toe, Comfort Colors and they apparently are not done yet. They also generated a giant wad of cash third quarter, which also makes them ready to gobble up some other company.

The other note I will make is that climate change is real. A significant portion of the press release was relegated to explaining that hurricanes killed their sock business in the third quarter, and created some havoc as well with other garments. These effects of climate change are far reaching and are not just going to be more skin cancer (what my own Dad died of,) or at the beach or whoever loses the lottery on where the storms make landfall. It even effects you having your socks and underwear get to you, or the world’s largest garment company losing a bundle of money.

Even Gildan notes in its section detailing why their plans for world dominance might not go as planned, reasons include

• the impact of climate, political, social, and economic risks in the countries in which we operate or from which wes ource production;
• disruption to manufacturing and distribution activities due to such factors as operational issues, disruptions in transportation logistic functions, labour disruptions, political or social instability, bad weather, natural disasters, pandemics, and other unforeseen adverse events;

Climate change and political unrest are real. If you think getting a right wing repressive government is the answer, check out how that has worked out in Myanmar. Or for that matter how the economies are doing in the most repressive countries.  Anybody out there thinking these on most of the most repressive list are good places to do business: North Korea, Syria, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan, China, Vietnam, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Cuba.

Make sure you vote in this election, politics is not just a spectator sport. And educate yourself on climate change, don’t blindly believe folks who benefit from the status quo.