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Apparel Maker Gildan Recommends Two Browning West Nominees to Board

Representation photo: A model presents a creation from the Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Collection by British designer Kim Jones for Dior fashion house during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 20 January 2023. (EPA)
Representation photo: A model presents a creation from the Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Collection by British designer Kim Jones for Dior fashion house during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 20 January 2023. (EPA)
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Apparel Maker Gildan Recommends Two Browning West Nominees to Board

Representation photo: A model presents a creation from the Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Collection by British designer Kim Jones for Dior fashion house during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 20 January 2023. (EPA)
Representation photo: A model presents a creation from the Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Collection by British designer Kim Jones for Dior fashion house during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 20 January 2023. (EPA)

Gildan Activewear recommended the election of two Browning West nominees to its board on Monday, ahead of its annual and special shareholder meeting on May 28.
The Canadian clothing maker's board has been clashing with activist fund Browning West, which owns 5% of Gildan, following the ouster of co-founder and CEO Glenn Chamandy in December, Reuters said.
In January, Browning West escalated its fight with Gildan, expanding its list of board candidates to eight from five and called an annual and special shareholder meeting amid the ongoing dispute to replace a majority of its board members and reinstate Chamandy as CEO.
On Monday, the board recommended the election of Karen Stuckey and J.P. Towner, nominated by Browning West. It also appointed five new independent directors to its board effective May 1, 2024.
Gildan had said in March its board decided to put the company up for sale and is in talks with multiple bidders.
The company added on Monday that external interest in an acquisition persists and the process is ongoing.

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Jeweler's Eye-popping Watch is Love Letter to Albania

The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
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Jeweler's Eye-popping Watch is Love Letter to Albania

The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP

Albanian jeweler Pirro Ruco labored day and night for five years to capture the essence of his country in a spectacular luxury watch.
Now the timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November, AFP said.
Set under a sapphire dome, the hours are marked by 12 golden folk dancers -- each in different regional dress -- set on Murano glass, the minute and hour hands adorned with eagle talons in homage to Albania's national symbol.
Ruco's rollercoaster rise mirrors that of Albania, from poverty and isolation as the most closed communist regime in Europe, to rollicking capitalism.
Along the way the jeweler overcame jealousy, the secret police and being sent into internal exile to rise to the pinnacle of his profession.
It all began for Pirro -- as he is known in his homeland -- in 1985 when he was asked to make a medal in red and gold bearing the head of Enver Hoxha, the paranoid dictator who ruled the small Balkan nation with an iron fist for more than four decades.
"That saved me," he told AFP from his workshop tucked away in an alley in the capital Tirana.
The medals were awarded to the regime's most loyal supporters and later caught the eye of Hoxha's wife.
The turn of fortune saw thousands more produced and worn by communist cadres across Albania.
"All the congressional delegates had to wear it. I made a name for myself with it," he said. It also saved him from the textile mills where he had been sent because his family had been deemed "rebellious".
'Priceless'
All this, however, was nearly derailed by an anonymous letter sent to authorities accusing Pirro of working with foreign agents.
He was questioned by intelligence agents and his workshop raided.
Down but not out, he was able to bounce back after crafting a ring bearing the image of the late husband of a member of the communist politburo and in July 1990 won a prize for a piece featuring Albania's 15th-century national hero Skanderberg.
But the very next day history intervened. The regime began to crumble and the collapse of Albania's communist rule in 1991 was followed by years of violent tumult as the country transitioned to a free-market economy.
Amid the ups and downs, Pirro stayed busy designing pieces for officials and celebrities.
During a trip to Basel in Switzerland in 2016, something new caught his eye.
"I wanted to make a watch. It was my new dream," he told AFP.
For the next five years, Pirro said he focused on "doing something special, Albanian, and at the same time completely new and never before seen in the watch industry."
The new timepiece which he calls Primordial Passion was designed in collaboration with the Swiss watchmaker Agenhor.
"I never wanted to make jewelry, but art," the jeweler said.
"Sculptures, images of the country, pieces of culture... This watch is the culmination of all that, of this love for Albania," he added.
"It is more than just a watch. It combines the rich heritage of ancient Albanian culture with the notion of chronometry."
Pirro refuses to divulge the methods used to craft the watch, but remains hopeful the painstaking details will be recognized by the judges at the Grand Prix in Geneva.
Several collectors have already contacted him about buying the timepiece, he said, though it would be difficult to part with his creation.
"I set a price because I had to. But for me, it is priceless."