WILMINGTON, Mass., June 26, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UniFirst Corporation (NYSE: UNF) (the “Company”) today reported results for its third fiscal quarter ended May 25, 2019 as compared to the corresponding period in last fiscal year:

Q3 2019 Financial Highlights

• Consolidated revenues for the quarter increased 6.2% to $453.7 million.
• Operating income was $60.2 million, an increase of 27.9%.
• The effective tax rate for the quarter decreased to 23.5% from 23.9%.
• Net income in the quarter increased to $47.2 million from $36.4 million, or 29.9%.
• Diluted earnings per share was $2.46 and increased 33.0%.

Steven Sintros, UniFirst President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are pleased with our third quarter results as our performance exceeded our expectations.  A solid selling environment and improved pricing allowed us to deliver record quarterly revenues off improved organic growth.  In addition, moderating costs as a percent of revenues as well as certain items that trended favorably in the quarter resulted in strong bottom line results. As always, I would like to thank our thousands of employee Team Partners for their efforts as well as their continued focus as we strive to provide the highest quality service to our customers.”

Segment Reporting Highlights

Core Laundry Operations

• Revenues for the quarter increased 5.5% to $399.8 million.
• Organic growth, which excludes the estimated effect of acquisitions as well as fluctuations in the Canadian dollar, was 5.8%.
• Operating margin increased to 13.4% from 10.5%. This increase was primarily due to larger than anticipated benefits from lower healthcare claims, lower production payroll costs as a percentage of revenues and the capitalization of sales commission costs due to the adoption of new revenue accounting guidance in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. In addition, several other operating and administrative expenses trended favorably and were positive contributors to the margin improvement. These items were partially offset by higher merchandise amortization as a percentage of revenues.

Specialty Garments

• Revenues for the quarter were $37.3 million, an increase of 9.6%. This increase was primarily due to acquisitions in fiscal 2018 that increased revenues by 7.6%.
• Operating margin decreased to 14.4% from 16.4%. This decrease was due to higher costs related to 2018 acquisitions as well as higher merchandise amortization as a percentage of revenues.
• Specialty Garments consists of nuclear decontamination and cleanroom operations and its results can vary significantly due to seasonality and the timing of reactor outages and projects.

Capital Allocation

• Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $349.4 million as of May 25, 2019.
• The Company has no long-term debt outstanding as of May 25, 2019.
• Under its previously announced stock repurchase program, the Company repurchased 99,500 common shares at an average share price of $147.47 for a total of $14.7 million during its third fiscal quarter of 2019. As of May 25, 2019, the Company had repurchased a total of 144,500 common shares at an average price of $145.01 for $21.0 million under the program.
• Weighted average shares outstanding – Diluted decreased 2.6% to 19.2 million shares.

Financial Outlook

Mr. Sintros continued, “Although we are encouraged by the third quarter results which reflect certain positive trends in our operations, we do want to caution that our profits were favorably impacted by a number of items that may not provide the same benefit going forward.”

The Company now expects its fiscal 2019 revenues will be between $1.802 billion and $1.809 billion and full year diluted EPS to be between $8.75 and $8.85. This guidance for fiscal 2019 assumes the current level of outstanding common shares and includes one extra week of operations compared to fiscal 2018 due to the timing of the Company’s fiscal calendar.

Conference Call Information

UniFirst will hold a conference call today at 9:00 a.m. (ET) to discuss its quarterly 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, as well as the delivery of facility service programs. Together with its subsidiaries, the Company also provides first aid and safety products, and manages specialized garment programs for the cleanroom and nuclear industries. UniFirst manufactures its own branded workwear, protective clothing, and floorcare products, and with more than 250 service locations, over 300,000 customer locations, and 14,000-plus employee Team Partners, the Company outfits nearly 2 million workers each business day. UniFirst is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol UNF and is a component of the Standard & Poor's 600 Small Cap Index. For more information, contact UniFirst at 800.455.7654 or visit www.unifirst.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure

This public announcement contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events and financial performance, including projected revenues 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 “estimates,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” “believes,” “seeks,” “could,” “should,” “may,” “will,” “strategy,” “objective,” “assume,” 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, the performance and success of our Chief Executive Officer, uncertainties caused by adverse economic conditions and their impact on our customers’ businesses and workforce levels, uncertainties regarding our ability to consummate and successfully integrate acquired 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, any loss of key management or other personnel, increased costs as a result of any changes in federal or state laws, rules and regulations or governmental interpretation of such laws, rules and regulations, uncertainties regarding the impact of the recently passed U.S. tax reform on our business, results of operations and financial condition, uncertainties regarding the price levels of natural gas, electricity, fuel and labor, the negative effect on our business from sharply depressed oil and natural gas prices, the continuing increase in domestic healthcare costs, including the impact of the Affordable Care Act, our ability to retain and grow our customer base, demand and prices for our products and services, fluctuations in our Specialty Garments business, instability 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 (CRM) 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 Securities and Exchange Commission, New York Stock Exchange and accounting rules, strikes and unemployment levels, our efforts to evaluate and potentially reduce internal costs, economic and other developments associated with the war on terrorism and its impact on the economy, general economic conditions, our ability to successfully implement our business strategies and processes, including our capital allocation strategies, and other factors described under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended August 25, 2018 and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which they are made.

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

UniFirst Corporation and Subsidiaries
Consolidated Statements of Income
(Unaudited)

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

UniFirst Corporation and Subsidiaries
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
(Unaudited)

(1) The Company has reclassified $11.6 million of software from property, plant, and equipment to intangible assets as of August 25, 2018, to conform to current year presentation.

UniFirst Corporation and Subsidiaries
Detail of Operating Results
(Unaudited)

Revenues

Operating Income

UniFirst Corporation and Subsidiaries
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(Unaudited)

UniFirst Corporation and Subsidiaries
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 these consolidated financial results, management believes that certain non-GAAP operating results provide a more meaningful measure on which to compare the Company’s results of operations for the periods presented. The Company believes these non-GAAP results provide useful supplemental information regarding the Company’s performance to both management and investors by excluding certain non-recurring amounts that impact the comparability of the results. Supplemental reconciliations of consolidated operating income, net income and earnings per diluted share on a GAAP basis to adjusted operating income, net income and earnings per diluted share on a non-GAAP basis are presented in the following tables. In addition, Core Laundry Operations operating income and operating margin on a GAAP basis to adjusted operating income and adjusted operating margin on a non-GAAP basis are presented in the following tables. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, which are provided below.

(a) The Tax Reform Adjustment, as presented, represents a one-time revaluation of our U.S. net deferred tax liabilities as well as a charge related to a one-time transition tax the Company will be subject to for the deemed repatriation of our foreign earnings. This does not include the benefit associated with the lower U.S. federal corporate income tax rates as of January 1, 2018. Our presentation of the effect of tax reform in our non-GAAP reconciliations of net income and diluted earnings per share for the thirty-nine weeks ended May 26, 2018 contained in our press release dated June 28, 2018 included all of the net benefits associated with lower U.S. federal corporate income tax rates.

Source: UniFirst Corp.