Feb 9 (Reuters) - T-shirt maker Gildan Activewear Inc (GIL.TO) reported better-than expected quarterly profit on strong growth in activewear unit sales volumes and favorable manufacturing, cotton and energy costs.

Gildan Activewear Inc - Photo: gildan.com

For the first quarter, the Montreal-based company earned $28 million, or 23 cents a share, up from $4.4 million, or 4 cents a share, last year, when demand for the company's T-shirts, used for logos and other designs, was extremely weak.

Excluding items, the company earned 24 cents a share for the quarter.

Revenue rose 20 percent to $220.4 million.

Analysts on average were expecting 22 cents a share on revenue of $206.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S/.

Gildan, which saw one of its factories in Haiti suffer substantial damage during last month's earthquake, said it continues to project full-year sales revenue in excess of $1.2 billion, a 17 percent rise from fiscal 2009.

Analysts were expecting revenue of $1.23 billion for the year.

The company, which manufactures T-shirts, socks and underwear, raised its capital expenditure forecast for fiscal 2010 to about $145 million from the $130 million it projected in December.

Gildan Activewear shares closed at C$23.92 Tuesday 9 February on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Reporting by R. Manikandan in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)