Gelmart Industries Inc.

Gelmart Industries, Inc. is one of the largest privately owned direct manufacturer of intimate apparel in the world. The company manufacturers and distributes lingerie that is sold in department stores, mass merchants and specialty stores nationwide. Gelmart also serves as a contract manufacturer for other brands, and has a showroom in Manhattan where it employs more than 20 workers. Its clients include Playtex, Wal-Mart and Liz Claiborne Inc.

Company History
Company history in paragraph form

Political and Public Influence

 * NYC Industrial Development Agency provided about USD 1.3 million in real estate and sales tax benefits to assist Gelmart's renovation of its distribution center in 2003

Corporate Accountability
Paragraph

Domestic

 * Congress Hotel Strike in Chicago: Congress Plaza Hotel is owned by Albert Nasser, who also owns Gelmart Industries. UNITE HERE Local 1, which represents the Congress Hotel Workers, has coordinated strikes with Gelmart workers in the Philippines and has also documented abuses at Gelmart's subcontractors in the Philippines.

Global
History:
 * 2001 Workers at Gelmart Industries Philippines voted to form union during deadlocked negotiations for collective bargaining agreement.
 * 2002 Gelmart Industries Philippines joins Global Compact
 * 2004 Gelmart Industries adopted own code of conduct
 * 2004 Gelmart Industries started removing machines and garment products December 18. Workers immediately blockaded Gelmart’s Parañaque factory to prevent the management from running away.

Policy: Campaigns against company:
 * Global Compact
 * [WRAP] -- Philippines factory is certified
 * Code of conduct -- "Gelmart consolidated, integrated, and incorporated the various codes of conduct (K-Mart, Wal-Mart, JC Penney, WRAP) and chose best practices among them to come up with our own code of conduct.... Also in 2004 Gelmart decided to raise the level of coprorate responsbility by asking all its subcontractors to adhere to the same principles.  For this purpose a Compliance Team has been formed to champion and uphold the Gelmart Corporate Social REsponsiblity Principles not only in Gelmart but also in all locations where Gelmart products are sewn."
 * 1) UNITE-HERE letter writing campaign 2003
 * 2) UNITE-HERE bra burning 2004

Major reports:
 * 1) UNITE HERE Local 1 Press Release about Working Conditions in Gelmart subcontractor factories

Brands
Lady Marlene

Customers

 * Playtex
 * Wal-Mart
 * Liz Claiborne Inc
 * Frederick's of Hollywood
 * Jockey International
 * K-Mart
 * Maidenform Inc.

Suppliers
Gelmart-owned manufacturing facility: Gelmart Industries Philippines KM15 South Super Highway Paranaque, Metro Manila Philippines Tel: 632-824-4961

Competitors
From Hoover's profile
 * Hanesbrands
 * Intimate Brands
 * Warnaco Group

Financial Information (as of DATE)
Largest Shareholders

Countries of operation
United States (sales and distribution), Philippines (production)

Executives
Ezra Nasser (President), James Nasser (CEO) Itzak Nasser (COO)

Board members & affiliations
Albert Nasser (Chairman)

Contact Information
136 Madison Avenue, 4th Floor New York, NY 10016 United States Tel:1-212-743-6900, 1-800-746-0014 http://www.gelmart.com