(Bloomberg) -- Shareholders of Gildan Activewear Inc. are escalating their campaign to bring back fired Chief Executive Officer Glenn Chamandy, with two of the largest investors saying they’ll call a meeting to vote out the board if they have to. 

“We are so disturbed by the board’s actions and its conduct that we now believe a significant reconstitution of the board is essential,” Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. said in a letter to the Canadian clothing manufacturer Wednesday afternoon. That followed a similar missive earlier from Los Angeles-based money manager Browning West LP. 

Turtle Creek said it is “alarmed at the board’s demonstration that it is willing to go to any length, including distorting Mr. Chamandy’s stellar track record of value creation for shareholders, in order to justify the board’s hasty, ill-conceived and value destructive decision to terminate him.”

Shares of Gildan closed down 3.7% at C$44.32 in Toronto. They’ve dropped more than 10% since the company announced Chamandy’s surprise departure on Dec. 11. 

The shareholder letters, and another one from the directors explaining their decision to turf the longtime CEO, illustrate the battle lines at Gildan, a C$7.7 billion ($5.8 billion) company that owns the American Apparel brand and was founded by Chamandy’s family. The board chose Vince Tyra, a former executive at Fruit of the Loom, to replace him. 

Eight investment firms have rallied to Chamandy’s side in a public way, with some heaping scorn on the appointment of Tyra and calling for Chair Donald Berg to step down. Collectively, those firms hold about a third of the outstanding shares — giving them a strong position if they decide to follow through with calling a meeting to replace the board. 

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Browning West asked Gildan to grant a board seat to Peter Lee, the investment firm’s co-founder, and said Berg must go. 

“If you continue to ignore the feedback of more than 33% of shareholders, Browning West is fully prepared to requisition a special meeting of shareholders to hold the board accountable for its actions and prevent the further destruction of value,” Lee and Chief Investment Officer Usman Nabi said in their letter. They said there are additional shareholders who want Chamandy back, but haven’t spoken publicly. 

Outside representatives for the Gildan board did not reply to requests for comment. Toronto-based Turtle Creek owned 3.3% of Gildan as of its last disclosure dated Sept. 30. Browning West says it controls 4.8% of the stock  

Four board members issued an open letter on Wednesday, saying that Chamandy agreed to a three-year succession plan in 2021, but changed course and “worked to entrench himself as CEO.” It reiterated earlier statements made by Director Luc Jobin that Chamandy had pushed the board to pursue risky acquisitions that would have moved the company away from its core activity of clothing manufacturing. 

The directors said Chamandy, 62, wanted to stay on as CEO for several more years and “told us repeatedly” that he would quit and sell his shares if he didn’t get his way. Chamandy has denied giving such an ultimatum.

“The business has grown in scale and complexity and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead call for a new leader with new ideas and different skills,” said the letter, signed by Berg, Jobin, Shirley Cunningham and Maryse Bertrand.

“The board is disappointed in Mr. Chamandy’s attempts to inflict the maximum amount of disruption to Gildan’s business in order to remain CEO,” they said. 

(Updates with closing share price, additional information about Browning West.)

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