American Apparel set to relaunch e-commerce site

Bloomberg

Gildan Activewear Inc. has big plans for American Apparel.
Since buying the iconic L.A. brand at a bankruptcy auction earlier this year, the Canadian maker of T-shirts and underwear has rebuilt inventory and ramped up shipments to wholesalers.
It’s now preparing to relaunch the e-commerce website, while also aiming to boost exports and explore retail opportunities.
“At the end of the day we will do very well with this brand,” CEO Glenn Chamandy said. “This will hopefully be one of the best acquisitions the company has ever made, in terms of return on investment, so we’re very excited about it.”
American Apparel was once a high-flying retailer that peaked at more than $600 million in sales. The revamped website will open in the next two weeks and carry a wide range of products, including jeans, to conform with some of American Apparel’s historic offerings, Chamandy said. Gildan hung onto a handful of the defunct company’s marketing and advertising employees and has set money aside to “re-energise” the brand, he said.
Montreal-based Gildan has built a global production chain, from yarn-spinning to clothes-stitching, that enables the company to lower costs and compete with Hanesbrands Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Fruit of the Loom. It’s now using that capacity to produce American Apparel clothes abroad for price-conscious wholesalers, while working with a third-party manufacturer in the US.
Chamandy didn’t say if the new site would give consumers the option to choose the cheaper, foreign-made products or pay a premium for goods made in the US.