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• Operating income by $11.8 million and $36.6 million, respectively.

• Adjusted EBITDA by $11.8 million and $33.6 million, respectively.

• Net income by $9.0 million and $28.0 million, respectively.

• Diluted earnings per share by $0.48 and $1.49, respectively.

Steven Sintros, UniFirst President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “I am pleased to report that we closed the year with a strong fourth quarter. We accomplished a lot as a team in fiscal 2024 that will help strengthen our company as we move forward, growing our business as well as advancing our technology and other organizational initiatives. I want to thank our nearly 16,000 Team Partners who continue to Always Deliver for each other and our customers as we strive towards our vision of being universally recognized as the best service provider in the industry.”

Q4 2024 Segment Reporting Highlights

Core Laundry Operations

• Revenues for the quarter increased 11.7% to $564.1 million.

• Organic growth, which excludes the effect of acquisitions, fluctuations in the Canadian dollar and the impact of the extra week, was 3.9%.

• Operating margin increased to 8.0% from 6.0%.

• Adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 14.9% from 12.7%.

The costs we incurred related to the Key Initiatives, discussed above, were recorded to the Core Laundry Operations' segment, and decreased both the Core Laundry Operations' operating and Adjusted EBITDA margins for the fourth quarters of fiscal 2024 and 2023 by 0.3% and 1.2%, respectively.

The segment's operating and Adjusted EBITDA margin comparisons benefited from the additional week in fiscal 2024, as well as from lower merchandise, payroll and other operating input costs as a percentage of revenues.

Specialty Garments

• Revenues for the quarter were $46.5 million, an increase of 12.3%. After adjusting for the impact of the extra week, organic growth was 4.4% primarily due to growth in the segment's cleanroom operations and stronger results from the U.S. nuclear operations.

• Operating margin increased to 18.5% from 16.4% a year ago, primarily due to higher profitability in the segment's nuclear operations. The nuclear operations' results can vary significantly due to seasonality and the timing of reactor outages and projects.

Balance Sheet and Capital Allocation

• Cash, cash equivalents and Short-term investments totaled $175.1 million as of August 31, 2024.

• The Company had no long-term debt outstanding as of August 31, 2024.

• The Company paid dividends to shareholders of $23.3 million in fiscal 2024, an increase of 5.6% from the prior year.

• The Company repurchased 45,556 shares of Common Stock for $7.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. During fiscal 2024, the Company repurchased a total of 139,556 shares of common stock for a total of $23.8 million under the program. As of August 31, 2024, the Company had $76.2 million remaining under its existing share repurchase authorization.

Financial Outlook

Mr. Sintros continued, “For fiscal 2025, we expect our revenues to be between $2.425 billion and $2.445 billion and fully diluted earnings per share to be between $6.79 and $7.19. This guidance includes an estimated $16.0 million of costs directly attributable to our Key Initiatives that we anticipate will be expensed in fiscal 2025. Please note the following regarding our guidance:

• Fiscal 2025 has one less week compared to prior year.

• Net income, at the midpoint of the range, is expected to be $131.0 million.

• Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA, at the midpoint of the range, is expected to be $330.0 million.

• Core Laundry Operations’ organic revenue growth, at the midpoint of the range, is expected to be 1.8%.

• Core Laundry Operations’ operating and Adjusted EBITDA margins, at the midpoint of the range, are expected to be 5.9% and 13.2%, respectively.

• The Key Initiatives are expected to decrease Core Laundry Operations’ operating and Adjusted EBITDA margins by 0.7% and EPS by $0.64.

• The effective tax rate is assumed to be 25.0%.

• Guidance does not include the impact of any future share buybacks or unexpected events affecting the economy generally.

Conference Call Information

UniFirst Corporation will hold a conference call today at 9:00 a.m. (ET) to discuss its quarterly and full year financial results, business highlights and outlook. A simultaneous live webcast of the call will be available over the Internet and can be accessed at www.unifirst.com.

About UniFirst Corporation

Headquartered in Wilmington, Mass., UniFirst Corporation (NYSE: UNF) is a North American leader in the supply and servicing of uniform and workwear programs, facility service products, as well as first aid and safety supplies and services. Together with its subsidiaries, the Company also manages specialized garment programs for the cleanroom and nuclear industries. In addition to partnering with leading brands, UniFirst manufactures its own branded workwear, protective clothing, and floorcare products at its five company-owned ISO-9001-certified manufacturing facilities. With more than 270 service locations, over 300,000 customer locations, and 16,000-plus employee Team Partners, the Company outfits more than 2 million workers every day. For more information, contact UniFirst at 888.296.2740 or visit UniFirst.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure

This public announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws that reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events and financial performance, including projected revenues, operating margin and earnings per share. Forward-looking statements contained in this public announcement are subject to the safe harbor created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may be identified by words such as “guidance,” “outlook,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” “believes,” “seeks,” “could,” “should,” “may,” “will,” “strategy,” “objective,” “assume,” “strive,” “design,” “assumption,” “vision” or the negative versions thereof, and similar expressions and by the context in which they are used. Such forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations and speak only as of the date made. Such statements are highly dependent upon a variety of risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, uncertainties caused by an economic recession or other adverse economic conditions, including, without limitation, as a result of elevated inflation or interest rates or extraordinary events or circumstances such as geopolitical conflicts like the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and disruption in the Middle East or the COVID-19 pandemic, and their impact on our customers’ businesses and workforce levels, disruptions of our business and operations, including limitations on, or closures of, our facilities, or the business and operations of our customers or suppliers in connection with extraordinary events or circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainties regarding our ability to consummate acquisitions and successfully integrate acquired businesses, and the performance of such businesses, uncertainties regarding any existing or newly-discovered expenses and liabilities related to environmental compliance and remediation, any adverse outcome of pending or future contingencies or claims, our ability to compete successfully without any significant degradation in our margin rates, seasonal and quarterly fluctuations in business levels, our ability to preserve positive labor relationships and avoid becoming the target of corporate labor unionization campaigns that could disrupt our business, the effect of currency fluctuations on our results of operations and financial condition, our dependence on third parties to supply us with raw materials, which such supply could be severely disrupted as a result of extraordinary events or circumstances such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, any loss of key management or other personnel, increased costs as a result of any changes in federal, state, international or other laws, rules and regulations or governmental interpretation of such laws, rules and regulations, uncertainties regarding, or adverse impacts from continued high price levels of natural gas, electricity, fuel and labor or increases in such costs, the negative effect on our business from sharply depressed oil and natural gas prices, the continuing increase in domestic healthcare costs, increased workers’ compensation claim costs, increased healthcare claim costs, our ability to retain and grow our customer base, demand and prices for our products and services, fluctuations in our Specialty Garments business, political or other instability, supply chain disruption or infection among our employees in Mexico and Nicaragua where our principal garment manufacturing plants are located, our ability to properly and efficiently design, construct, implement and operate a new customer relationship management computer system, interruptions or failures of our information technology systems, including as a result of cyber-attacks, additional professional and internal costs necessary for compliance with any changes in or additional Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), New York Stock Exchange and accounting or other rules, including, without limitation, recent rules adopted by the SEC regarding climate-related and cybersecurity-related disclosures, strikes and unemployment levels, our efforts to evaluate and potentially reduce internal costs, the impact of foreign trade policies and tariffs or other impositions on imported goods on our business, results of operations and financial condition, our ability to successfully implement our business strategies and processes, including our capital allocation strategies, our ability to successfully remediate the material weakness in internal control over financial reporting disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended August 26, 2023 and the other factors described under Part I, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended August 26, 2023, Part II, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in our other filings with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which they are made.

Consolidated Statements of Income
(Unaudited)

^{(1)    Exclusive of depreciation on the Company’s property, plant and equipment and amortization on its intangible assets.}


Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
(Unaudited)

Detail of Operating Results
(Unaudited)

^{(1)    The Company’s financial results for the fourth quarters of fiscal 2024 and 2023 included approximately $1.8 million and $6.1 million, respectively, of costs directly attributable to its Key Initiatives. These costs were recorded to the Core Laundry Operations.
(2)    The Key Initiatives' costs decreased both Core Laundry Operations' operating and Adjusted EBITDA margins for the fourth quarters of fiscal 2024 and 2023 by 0.4% and 1.2%, respectively.}

^{(3)    The Company's financial results for the full years of fiscal 2024 and 2023 included approximately $11.8 million and $33.6 million, respectively, of costs directly attributable to its Key Initiatives. In addition, the Company incurred costs related to the acquisition of Clean Uniform during the full year of fiscal 2023 of approximately $3.0 million, which are excluded from Adjusted EBITDA. These costs were recorded to the Core Laundry Operations.
(4)    The Key Initiatives' costs decreased both Core Laundry Operations' operating and Adjusted EBITDA margins for the full years of fiscal 2024 and 2023 by 0.6% and 1.7%, respectively. In addition, Clean Uniform acquisition costs further decreased Core Laundry Operations' operating margin for the full year of fiscal 2023 by approximately 0.2%.}

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(Unaudited)

^{(1)    Depreciation and amortization for the full year of fiscal 2024 and 2023 included approximately $18.8 million and $14.7 million, respectively, of non-cash amortization expense recognized on acquisition-related intangible assets.}

Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company reports its consolidated financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). To supplement the Company’s consolidated financial results in this press release, the Company also presents Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin, which are non-GAAP financial measures. The Company defines Adjusted EBITDA as net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, further adjusted for share-based compensation expense, acquisition costs, and other items impacting the comparability of the Company’s underlying operating performance between periods. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as Adjusted EBITDA for a period divided by revenue for the same period.

The Company believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful supplemental information regarding the performance of the Company and its segments to both management and investors. In addition, by excluding certain items, these non-GAAP financial measures enable management and investors to further evaluate the underlying operating performance of the Company. The Company presented EBITDA in recent periods and has presented Adjusted EBITDA in this press release because the Company believes that the further adjustments included in Adjusted EBITDA provide useful supplemental information regarding the underlying operating performance of the Company by adjusting for items that impact the comparability of the Company’s operating and financial performance.

Supplemental reconciliations of the Company’s consolidated net income on a GAAP basis to Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin, are presented in the following table. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, which are provided below. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin should be considered in addition to, and not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The Company does not allocate its provision for income taxes to its business segments and as a result, presents it in a separate column in the following tables:

^{(1)    Represents costs incurred related to the acquisition of Clean Uniform. The Company completed the acquisition on March 13, 2023 during the third quarter of fiscal 2023.}

^{(1)    Represents costs incurred related to the acquisition of Clean Uniform. The Company completed the acquisition on March 13, 2023 during the third quarter of fiscal 2023.}

Supplemental reconciliations of the Company’s fiscal 2025 financial outlook for consolidated net income on a GAAP basis to Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin, which are non-GAAP financial measures, are presented in the following table. In addition, supplemental reconciliations of the fiscal 2025 financial outlook for segments’ net income on a GAAP basis to segments’ Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin, which are non-GAAP financial measures, are also presented in the following table.

Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliations of the outlook for these non-GAAP measures to the outlook for their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, which are provided below. The Company’s outlook contains forward-looking statements and information. Actual results may differ materially. See “Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure.”

^{(1)   Amounts represent the midpoint of the Company’s guidance.
(2)   Primarily represent one-time costs expected to be incurred related to the hiring and on-boarding of the Company's new Chief Operating Officer, Kelly Rooney, and for the transition of Michael Croatti from his role as Executive Vice President, Operations. Details on these leadership changes can be found in the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on September 19, 2024.}

Investor Relations Contact
Shane O’Connor, Executive Vice President & CFO
UniFirst Corporation        
978-658-8888
shane_oconnor@unifirst.com