Cintas Corp (CTAS) Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Cintas Corporation Announces Fiscal 2027 First Quarter Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Jared Mattingly, Vice President, Treasurer, and Investor Relations.

Please go ahead, sir. Thank you, Ross, and thank you for joining us. With me are Todd Schneider, Chief Executive Officer, Jim Rosakis, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Scott Garula, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will discuss our fiscal 2027 first quarter results. After our commentary, we will open the call to questions from analysts. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor from civil litigation for forward-looking statements. This conference call contains forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views as to future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those we may discuss. I refer you to the discussion on these points contained in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I'll now turn the call over to Todd.

Thank you, Jared. We are pleased with our start to fiscal 2027. Our first quarter results reflect the strength of our business model, the execution of our employee partners, and the value proposition we provide by helping customers meet their image, safety, cleanliness, and compliance needs. First quarter total revenue grew 10.9% to $3.01 billion. This marks the first time we have reached $3 billion of revenue in a quarter. The organic growth rate, which adjusts for the impacts of acquisitions, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, and workday differences was 8.9%. We remain encouraged by the consistency of demand we are seeing as businesses continue to see the value of outsourcing to a service provider like Cintas. Our first quarter performance demonstrates that Cintas is well-positioned to help businesses of all sizes improve productivity, reduce complexity, and operate more efficiently. Whether through our uniform rental and facility services business, first aid and safety solutions, fire protection services, or our uniform direct sale business, our value proposition continues to resonate. Diluted EPS for the quarter was $1.36, an increase of 13.3% from the prior year. Adjusting for the universe transaction-related expenses, adjusted diluted EPS was $1.39, an increase of 15.8% from the prior year. Drawing on the strength of our performance, we continued to allocate capital in a balanced manner in the first quarter. Our capital expenditures were within our targeted range at 3.6% of sales. We were active in M&A and increased our dividend 15.6% for the shareholders of record as of August 14, 2026. We are pleased to have increased our dividend every year since going public 43 years ago. In addition, we were opportunistic with our share buybacks, purchasing $545 million through today's date. Our culture remains our greatest competitive advantage. The combination of our strong culture, operational excellence, effective supply chain management, technology investments, and focus on customer experience continues to differentiate CentOS in a highly competitive market. Reflecting our strong first quarter performance and confidence in the remainder of the year, we are updating our fiscal 2027 guidance. We are raising fiscal 2027 revenue guidance from a range of $12.10 billion to $12.25 billion to a range of $12.15 billion to $12.27 billion, a total growth rate of 7.9% to 8.9%. We are also raising our fiscal 2027 adjusted diluted EPS from a range of $5.36 to $5.50 to a range of $5.45 to $5.54, a growth rate of 10.3% to 12.1%. Before I turn the call over to Jim, I'd like to provide a brief update on our acquisition of Unifirst. First, we remain confident of the substantial long-term value creation for our combined customers, partners, and shareholders. We mentioned on our last call that the merger was subject to regulatory clearances in both the U.S. and Canada. That process is ongoing as we continue to work toward obtaining regulatory clearance and completing other closing conditions. We remain optimistic that the deal will close by the end of calendar 2026. In order to avoid creating speculation, we will not be providing any additional commentary on this process. We will update the market going forward as appropriate. With that, I'll turn it over to Jim to discuss our operating performance in greater detail.

Thank you, Todd. Our employee partners continue to execute at a high level and demonstrate how well our value proposition resonates with customers of all sizes. Our strong top-line growth is due to a number of factors, largely concentrated around our ability to deliver more value for customers. We are succeeding in tapping into the massive total addressable market as we convert no programmers to a managed solution. In addition, we continue to expand our relationships with existing customers by adding new products and services. And we are maintaining strong customer retention while pricing remains consistent with prior years. I'm going to provide an example in our rental business of converting a no-programmer to a managed rental solution. An owner of a small fitness studio in Florida recently shared on social media why she chose to partner with Sintus. Her story highlights why her value proposition resonates so strongly with small businesses. As her company expanded, she found herself spending more and more time managing restroom supplies, floor mats, air fresheners, and other facility needs that were essential to maintaining the experience her members expected. She recognized those responsibilities were taking time away from serving her customers, supporting her, employees, and growing her business. By outsourcing the Cintas, she gained the convenience of a trusted partner. The breadth of our product line addressed our facility needs while enhancing the image, cleanliness, and consistency of our studios. Most importantly, it gave her valuable time back to focus on the core aspects of our operation and what matters most. That's why our value proposition continues to resonate with small businesses and why they represent such an important part of our addressable market. Business owners like her are already managing these responsibilities on their own and recognize to partner with Syntas helps them operate more efficiently, elevate the customer experience, and focus on growing their business. That value proposition continues to drive strong customer demand across our businesses, and was reflected in our performance this quarter. As Todd mentioned, we had strong organic revenue growth for the company. Organic growth by business was 8% for uniform rental and facility services, 14.2% for first aid and safety services, 9.2% for fire protection services, and 9.6% for uniform direct sale. Gross margin as a percentage of revenue is 51.5%, an all-time high. Gross margin percentage by business was 50.8% for uniform rental facility services, 57.6% for first aid and safety services, 52.8% for fire protection services, and 38.9% for uniform direct sale. Gross margin for the uniform rental and facility services segment increased 110 basis points from last year to achieve an all-time high gross margin of 50.8%. This business continues to benefit from strong revenue growth, which creates leverage. In addition, we continue to see margin expansion as a result of the investments we are making in technology. These technology investments also serve to make it easier for our employee partners to do their job while creating a better customer experience. Our first aid and safety services segment gross margin increased 80 basis points from last year. We continue to go at attractive rates, which is also creating leverage. Businesses throughout the United States and Canada continue to place an emphasis on workplace safety, training, compliance, and health and wellness solutions. Our fire protection services segment had really strong margins for the quarter. Keep in mind that margins can fluctuate from quarter to quarter based on the timing of certain investments and sales mix. Some of those investments include increasing growth capacity by hiring technicians need to perform specialized tasks, as well as building out a national footprint. Selling in administrative expenses as a percent of revenue was 27.4%, which was a 10 basis point improvement from last year. With that, I'll turn it over to Scott.

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. First quarter operating income was $711.9 million compared to $617.9 million last year, an increase of 15.2%. Excluding the UNIFIRS transaction-related expenses, operating income increased 17.6% over the prior year. Operating income as a percentage of revenue was at an all-time high at 23.6% in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 compared to 22.7% in last year's first quarter. Keep in mind that there was an extra workday in the first quarter. The impact of the extra workday on operating margin was a benefit of 50 basis points, which was offset by 50 basis points of Unifirst transaction-related expenses. Comparing to the prior operating margin of 22.7%, the adjusted operating margin for the first quarter was 23.6%, a 90 basis point improvement. Our effective tax rate for the first quarter was 20.0% compared to 17.6% last year. The tax rates in both quarters were impacted by certain discrete items, primarily the tax accounting impact for stock-based compensation. Net income for the first quarter was $551.7 million compared to $491.1 million last year. This year's first quarter diluted earnings per share was $1.36 compared to $1.20 last year, an increase of 13.3%. Excluding the Unifirst transaction-related expenses, adjusted diluted earnings per share was $1.39 compared to $1.20 last year, an increase of 15.8%. Cash flow generation was strong during the quarter and continues to support a balanced approach to capital allocation. We invested $107.5 million in capital expenditures during the quarter, primarily focused on technology, automation, capacity expansion, and infrastructure investments that support future growth. We also continue to evaluate strategic acquisition opportunities across our route-based businesses. Returning capital to shareholders remain an important priority. During the quarter, we increased our regular quarterly dividend by 15.6% and up through today made $545 million in share repurchases. Earlier, Topp provided our updated fiscal 2027 outlook. That outlook assumes the following. Fiscal 2027 has one more workday than fiscal 2026. Keep in mind, the first quarter had one extra workday compared to the prior year first quarter. The second quarter will have the same number of workdays year over year. The third quarter will have one less workday, and the fourth quarter will have one more workday than fiscal 2026. Our guidance does not assume any future acquisitions. Our guidance assumes a constant foreign currency exchange rate. The fiscal 2027 net interest expense is expected to be approximately $103 million, a fiscal 2027 effective tax rate of 20.4% compared to 20.2% in fiscal 2026. The guide does not include the impact of any future share buybacks or significant economic disruptions or downturns, and the guide excludes non-recurring transaction costs related to the universe acquisition. With that, I'll turn it back to Todd for some closing remarks.

Thank you, Scott. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our strategy and the long-term opportunities available to Cintos. We continue to see significant opportunity in a massive addressable market. The market remains highly competitive, and we believe our value proposition positions as well to help our customers meet their needs of image, safety, cleanliness, and compliance. The future of Cintas remains bright, and our employee partners continue to demonstrate why our culture is our greatest competitive advantage. As always, I want to thank our employee partners for their dedication to our customers and Cintas.

I'll now turn it back over to Jared. Thank you, Todd. That concludes our prepared remarks. Now we are happy to answer questions from the analysts. please ask just one question and a single follow-up if needed.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad now. Please be prepared to ask your question when prompted. You will also be allowed to ask one follow-up question. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your phone now. And our first question comes from Tim Mulroney from William Blair. Please go ahead, Tim.

Hi, this is Renee Gagliardo. I'm for Tim Mulroney. It looks like you raised your revenue guidance a little bit here for the full year. Would you mind walking us through what the primary drivers are behind that?

Renee, this is Todd. I'll start. But we have many ways to grow. And, you know, the most important driver for us is new business. You know, converting over no programmers has been a part of our history and part of our future. This is a key component for us. And over two-thirds of our new business comes from new programmers. So that has been significant for us. We certainly have other ways to grow. And when we think about our current customer growth, that has been important to us and has been steady, if nothing else, positive. but our opportunities there we see as, you know, continuing to grow our volume is our number one focus and the key inputs that we're seeing have been, you know, creating good momentum for us. I think you saw that in our opening guide, but you also see that in our updated guidance as well. So, Jim, anything you'd like to contribute on that subject?

Yeah, not really, Todd. I think that, you know, you summarized it well. We're off to a nice start for the year. We really like how we're positioned. You know, it speaks to, again, the size of the market and that there's, you know, today we have 1 million customers and there's 16 to 20 million businesses. It also speaks to, you know, the value proposition that we have and our ability to continue to convert no programmers over to a managed solution like the commentary or like the example that I provided on prepared remarks, our cross-sell efforts continue to go very well. And, you know, I think it's important to note that the vast majority of our growth and the momentum we have is in volume growth, which is more new customers, better retention rates, increasing our cross-sell. So a little bit of improvement on all those, and that's really what's impacting the guide. So we are really pleased with the start of the fiscal year.

Thank you. And one follow-up on that, specifically around the uniform rental space, looks like organic growth stepped up quite a bit in the first quarter versus the fourth. Was there anything notable behind that improvement specifically, be it new account sales or retention, or was that result more or less in line with your internal forecast for the quarter?

Yeah, thank you, Renee. I'll start on that one. You know, I think that if you unpack the rental division growth, you know, we really have four key inputs that we speak about for organic growth for rental. Pricing being one of those, being probably the least important of the four. And pricing was consistent with prior years. So really no change there. The other three being new business, which once again, two-thirds of that new business comes from that no programmer space. New business being the most substantial growth driver that we have. That performed well once again in the quarter. Retention continues to perform really well. Slight improvement in retention. and then a little bit of improvement there in cross-sells. So a little bit of improvement, I think, in all three of those volume-based buckets that we would note. Now, I would keep in mind that Rental in particular had the most favorable comp in the first quarter. Last year, Rental growth rate in Q1 was 7.3%, so it gave us a little bit more favorable comp. And I would also keep in mind that we are comfortable with that moving a little bit in our stated range of mid to high single digits. So, for example, last fiscal year, we opened Q1 with an organic growth rate of 7.3. That growth rate went to 7.8 in Q2. We turned back to 7.3 in Q3 and then up to 7.9 in Q4. So it just shows that running a business isn't linear and we expect a little bit of variability quarter to quarter, but we're certainly pleased with the start of the fiscal year and we're appreciative of how well our employee partners are executing.

Great. Thank you very much.

And our next question comes from Manav Patnik from Barclays. Please go ahead, Manav.

Thank you. Just on that last part, Jim, maybe if you could elaborate a little bit more on the customer conversations you're having today in the context of all the macro uncertainty rates, even maybe your pending universe deal, just to get some more color on other than, I guess, some quarterly fluctuations like you talked about, but the underlying trend still seems much better than last year.

Good morning, Manavaz, Todd. I'll start. From a macro standpoint, it is certainly a dynamic environment, but we're pleased with where the demand is coming from with our customer base. As you know, we have a pretty darn broad customer base. So we've got some that are absolutely thriving and others that are struggling. But in general, we're we're quite pleased. You know, if you look at, you know, GDP and the jobs report, they've been positive. A little the jobs have been a little bit choppy. But as we've stated in the past, we don't need that. You know, we prefer an absolutely thriving economy, just like any American would. But we don't need it. And we've demonstrated in the past that we can grow multiples of GDP and multiples of employment. Now, we care passionately about how our customer base is performing, meaning how healthy their businesses are. But even in choppy environments, we have the ability to help them. And in certain cases, we're even more valuable then. But as far as any specifics on our customer base, I'll pass it over to Jim.

Yeah, and Matt, I appreciate the question. And I would say that as Todd started, he ended there, was that our customers right now, and anytime it's a dynamic environment, they are looking for solutions. They're looking for consistency. They're looking for help in running their business. And outsourcing provides exactly that. It gives them an opportunity to focus back on their business and their core elements of their business. So our value proposition certainly resonates in all different types of economic cycles, but it may resonate even more in a dynamic environment. And we see that in our ability to convert new business and our ability to go ahead and cross-sell. And the majority of our customers today are solving for image safety, cleanliness, and compliance in some way. And they see that outsourcing to CentOS is another way to solve for that, oftentimes a more efficient, more reliable way. way and certainly a time saver for them. So we really like where we are. We like the value proposition and think it's resonating well, even in today's environment.

Got it. Okay. That helps frame the second half of the remainder of the year kind of revenue guidance. Maybe any thoughts on, you know, the cadence of margins for the rest of the year and, you know, comments or noise to call out there.

Yeah, Manav, you know, we feel really good about our guide. If you look at, you know, on the margin side, the guide infers, you know, a really attractive year along with operating margin improvement and incrementals right where we like them throughout the guide. So, you know, the incrementals that we're guiding for would be now at 32 to 34. That's an increase from 30 to 32. And operating margin expansion at double-digit rates throughout. So, we feel really good about the guide.

Yeah. And Mano, if I just provide a little additional color. So, certainly a great start to the year on incremental margins. And as Todd pointed out, expecting to have a good year relative to incrementals, you know, mid to high point of the guide, 32 to 34. I think some things that maybe for, you know, making sure we frame up the year correctly, just keep in mind that Q1 in the first half is largely a little bit of a tailwind. So Q1, we get one extra workday, and the comps in the first half prior year, we're coming off our most favorable comparisons. Prior year, incrementals in Q1 were 26%, Q2 were 27%. That dynamic reverses in the second half of the year, and in Q3, we have one less workday, and in Q4, we have our most difficult comp, effectively 38% for the Q4 last year incrementals. So, overall, it's shaping up to be a really nice year in our stated range, but in the upper half of our stated range, but you may see some variability quarter to quarter.

Got it.

Thanks for the detail.

Ma, just a couple other points. This is Scott. Good morning. You know, Todd, I talked about our guide. You know, the only thing that I might add on the EPS guide is that at all points of the guide, you know, we're demonstrating double-digit earnings growth, EPS growth throughout the range. You know, Jim's alluded to, you know, the additional workday. and certainly the extra workday provided a little bit of a tailwind for us. You heard my opening comments that it had an impact on an operating margin of 50 basis points. If you think about the workday impact on incrementals in the first quarter, it was 400 basis points. And then, you know, I think it's important that, you know, as I talked about in the opening remarks on the number of workdays by quarter. You know, we had the benefit of an additional workday in Q1. In Q2, there's the same number of workdays year over year. And then in Q3, we actually have one less workday, and in Q4, we have one more. So when you think about the, you know, the tailwind that we had in the first quarter on operating margin and incrementals, you know, it's going to be a headwind in Q3. And just think about, for the year, the one extra workday on an annual basis. Revenue, think about the extra workday on an annual basis of, you know, 40 to 50 basis points. On operating margin, think about it in the range of 10 to 15 basis points. And then on incrementals for the year, think about the extra workday in the range of 100 to 125 basis points. So, this will be a year that we're going to be talking about workday differential kind We definitely had a tailwind on that in Q1, and, you know, it'll create a tail or a headwind for us in Q3. So, make sure as you're thinking about the year, you think about the workday differential and the impact on growth and margin.

Thank you.

And our next question comes from Andy Whitman from RW Baird. Please go ahead, Andy.

Yeah, great. Thanks. All this digging into the guidance and those assumptions is really helpful. I know this is a smaller point, but one I think that is worth understanding is on the interest expense. I just noticed that, you know, for the quarter here, you weren't quite $25 million of interest expense, a little bit of interest income on that. You're guiding your net interest expense increasing for the year, and you've got a comment in your release about how amortization costs are a factor in that related to the Unifirst deal. So I just was hoping to understand, maybe, Scott, the mechanism by which that happens. Like, the deal hasn't closed yet, but you've lined up some financing in advance of that that you're paying a non-cash interest on. Can you just help me understand this so that we can get our model correct and we don't have to, so we can just understand how this is going to play out for the year, please?

Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for the question. I guess as far as, you know, answer the question in really two parts. When you think about, you know, our guide on our net interest expense of $103 million, we're really not changing the guide for Qs 2 through 4. We had some favorable results in the first quarter just based on, you know, a positive cash flow and the fact that we were not in CP, commercial paper, at the end of the first quarter. So that had a positive impact in Q1, but if you look at, you know, what it implies for Q2 through Q4, it lines up with the original guide that we had. As far as the financing related to the Unifirst transaction, those fees are related to the bridge loan that we secured and we've got you know fees associated with that bridge loan of approximately six million dollars you know over the term of the agreement so think about it six million dollars over 18 months and that gets expense to a net interest expense and that's what you're seeing there so for For fiscal year 27, that will account for about $4 million of interest expense.

Got it. Thank you for that. That's helpful. And I just wanted to ask my follow-up on the FHIR segment and the implementation of the SAP system there. We saw, obviously, the impact to the SG&A in that segment from that initiative. I was hoping you could maybe comment on if this is the right kind of SG&A level to think of for the balance of the year, where is the status of that program today in terms of its rollout, and do you have any better clarity on when the go-live of that system will happen so that we can just start thinking about the profit margin benefits that that can result with, as well as the fall-off of the one-time cost for its implementation?

Andy, this is Jim. I'll start on fire protection, and then if Scott wants to add any more color relative to the SG&A line. But I would tell you that the SAP, we have not started and we have not gone live with SAP in our fire protection business yet. SAP is still in pilot, and we are working diligently on that program, and we expect it to start rolling out at some point during this fiscal year. And as you know, rolling out a conversion like this is typically difficult and certainly complicated. But we like our playbook. We like our track record of ERP implementations like this. But it will take time. But it's not impacting our guidance or it's not impacting our results at this point.

Yeah. And just, I guess, to add some color on SG&A, You know, when you look at our overall SG&A expense, it's really flat. When you look at Q1 over Q1, as well as sequentially, the, you know, Unifirst transaction expenses are pulled out of that. So we are comparing apples to apples. And, you know, this is the area of the P&L that you're seeing some of our investments to continue to grow at the attractive rates. You know, some of those investments would include technology, some of those investments, selling resources, management bench strength. You know, so those are some of the key inputs that help drive the top-line revenue momentum that you're seeing. But overall, SG&A is flat sequentially and year over year.

Yeah, and maybe the last point I might just add, Andy, is that when you look at the all other segment, it does include our uniform direct sale business, and we know that the results in that business tend to have a little bit more variability quarter to quarter. So keep in mind, that's a blended result. Thanks, guys.

And our next question comes from George Tong from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, George.

Hi, thanks. Can you talk a bit about how performance in the quarter varied across your verticals, where you're seeing the most strength and where you're seeing any pockets of weakness?

Hey, George, this is Jim. I'll start on that. And I would tell you again, we really like the verticals that we've selected and all of them are performing quite well for us and they continue to outperform the business as a whole. And so we're pleased with where we are. As a reminder, we're organized around healthcare and not only just in selling resources, but also our product line and delivery methodology there. Our hospitality, state and local government, and education, all of those have performed really well for us and continue to perform well for us, and we continue to make investments and really like the verticals that we've selected and really like the way we've organized around those. So, nothing specific to call out is one outperforming the others. They're all performing above the company average.

Got it. That's helpful. And then can you talk a bit about how higher fuel and energy costs are impacting margins and what actions, including pricing and operational changes, you're taking to offset the impact?

George, I'll start with that one. As you know, it's a volatile situation with the price at the pump. As a reminder, we do not pass through any fuel surcharges. We manage it operationally, and we expect to get, extract out inefficiencies in our business, and I think you're seeing it show up. You know, the price at the pump is certainly up. We had a good success from going from Q4 to Q1, down 10 bps. We're up a year over prior 10 bps on energy. But we're, from a modeling standpoint, we expect it to be, you know, I'll call it Q4 type levels. So a little bit above where we were in Q1 for the rest of the year. But we're going to manage through this. And as a reminder, price at the pump is about 60% of our energy costs, which is about 100 pips for the year. So there's other input costs, you know, whether it's electric or natural gas. And we feel good about how the team's managing it. Volatile area of the economy, but we're prepared to manage it and manage it efficiently. And it's certainly contemplated in our guide as well.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Josh Chan from UBS. Please go ahead, Josh.

Hi, good morning, Todd, Jim, Scott, Jared. Maybe sticking on the inflation side for a bit, You know, could you talk about kind of other areas of the cost structure, cotton, what you're seeing in terms of inflation and kind of how you're managing those areas?

Yeah, Josh, good morning. You know, we're certainly not immune from inflation. it is something that when we think about it, we think immediately about corporate culture, because corporate culture is our ultimate competitive advantage. And when you're dealing with these types of environments, it gives us an opportunity to really shine. And our supply chain has done a remarkable job in managing through the input costs that are important. And we're committed to managing this efficiently. And as inflation is up, we don't take the approach that, well, prices, our costs are up, so we're just going to pass along to the customers. We don't take that approach because we operate in an incredibly competitive market. Our customers have choices. And as a result, we've got to be better than that. And the organization knows that. The leadership team has digested that and leads through it. And so we find ways to extract out inefficiencies in our business. And we're doing that by investing appropriately and seeing around the corner. and technology being an important area for that. So you're seeing that show up in our results, and we think we're well-positioned to manage it moving forward. So, yeah, we'll monitor it. We'll manage it. But as a result of that, you know, as Jim stated earlier, our growth that you're seeing is not because of pricing. I mean, pricing always plays some component in it, but it is consistent with past years. Our growth is from volume, and our margin expansion is because of our corporate culture and our team seeing around the corner and implementing projects that help us extract out those inefficiencies. I'm really proud of what they've accomplished.

Josh, this is Scott. I might just add one other point. But, you know, when you think about inflation and certain parts of the P&L that might impact, you know, we also have the advantage of time, meaning that, you know, any inflationary pressure that we receive on material costs, you know, that gets amortized. For instance, you know, on the garment side, the average amortization period is 18 months. If you think about another part of the P&L, like plant equipment or trucks, we also have the advantage of time here where we depreciate that equipment over, call it an average of 10 years. And then there's certainly other areas of the P&L. Todd talked about energy, you know, supplies. You know, those are impacted, but they're just not material to our overall results, and as Todd alluded to. You know, we've been able to overcome any inflationary pressure on fuel and have demonstrated that really over the last two fiscal quarters.

Yeah, yeah, that's great to hear. Thank you for the color on that. And maybe on the growth side of things, just stepping back from the quarter and the days, you know, I guess two years ago, you know, you were growing around 8% organic. organic, you know, now you have a couple of quarters in a row of above 8% organic and kind of almost 9% this quarter. So as compared to then, you know, what's better now, you know, because I know that you have always had good retention, you know, your new business is always strong, but you know, what's different now versus maybe like a year or two ago?

Yeah. Hey, Josh, this is Jim. I'll start on that one. And again, I think we unpack our main drivers of growth and we look at the big inputs. I think Todd pointed out, we said a couple of times, hey, pricing is consistent with prior years. So that's neutral in our growth algorithm there. And then if you look at the other three, when I say the other three, new business being the biggest contributor of our growth, you look at strong retention and then cross-sell. Each one of the three have had improvements over the last year. So we continue to see improved productivity from our sales organization. Our sales organization is doing a great job capitalizing on the TAM and the unserved marketplace. So we're really proud of the work that they're doing there. Retention has been really attractive, but continues to show incremental improvements. And we like the trend line that we have going on with our retention. And then cross-sell, this is one that we've been working really hard on, continuing to penetrate our current customer base. And we recognize in our current customers that there's so much opportunity of products and services that we supply that they are already spending money on in other ways and trying to solve for that issue. And our teams have continued to focus on that. We're working really diligently on that when we continue to see incremental improvements in our cross-sell effort. So if you look at that across the board, you know, new business retention and cross-sell kind of evenly distributed on the improvement. Now, I did mention earlier in the commentary that we do expect that this growth will move from quarter to quarter. And running a business isn't linear, so it doesn't just continue to go up in perpetuity. You will see some changes quarter to quarter, like the example I gave of our rental business going through last year. But we're pleased with the start of the year. We're pleased with how well our value proposition resonates, and we like where we're at.

Yeah, that's great. And congrats on a really strong quarter.

Thank you, Josh.

And our next question comes from Jasper Bibb from Truist Securities. Please go ahead, Jasper.

Hey, good morning, guys. I wanted to follow up on the earlier question on energy costs as a percentage of revenue in the guide, if you don't mind. I think the initial guide assumed about a 20 basis point here on your headwind. If I extrapolate your comments about being somewhere the fiscal fourth quarter of 26, I think it's still maybe 20 basis points, maybe 30 basis points. Edwin, in your 27 guidance, is that the right way to think about it?

Yeah, Jasper, this is Scott. Yeah, just to kind of walk through energy, you know, we finished the quarter at 1.8% in energy, which Todd alluded to. It was up over last Q1 by 10 bps, but down versus Q4 by 10 bps. We feel really comfortable with, you know, how we've got energy contemplated in our guide, which is slightly above, you know, where we actually experienced Q4. And we're not expecting energy to be a headwind relative to our guide. And, you know, as Todd alluded to, you know, when you think about our energy expense, Only 60% of our energy expense is fuel for our trucks, so call it 100 BIPs. So, you know, we're seeing a 30% increase at the pump. You know, that for an extended period of time, you know, that could be, you know, 30 BIPs impact on the P&L from our historical levels of 1.7. And, you know, we've got a variety of ways that we can offset that. And I would chalk the first one up to what Todd talked about in place, and that's just our culture. But no matter what our performance is, no matter what environment that we're operating, we're always looking at ways to extract cost or inefficiencies from the business to offset any cost headwinds.

Makes sense. Thank you for that. And then another really nice quarter for First Aid. Can you talk about what's driving the success there and where you are as far as the cross-selling penetration between your first aid customers and your uniformed customers?

Yeah, Jasper, this is Jim. I'll start on first aid and safety and start with we really love the first aid and safety business and the value proposition that it represents. and certainly an easy one for our employee partners to rally behind is taking care of the health and wellness of employees and customers of our customers. So they've done a fantastic job in that business. We really like the outlook of it. Certainly, as I mentioned in my commentary, more and more people continue to focus on providing those wellness solutions. I would just say that that business, certainly CrossSell, is a key component. But their growth algorithm is pretty similar to what I just described in the rental business, which is, you know, you've got kind of four major inputs. You've got pricing, and once again, pricing is consistent with prior years. New business, and we continue to see increased productivity levels on our new business team in our first aid and safety business, and we like the way that's performing. Retention is up, and cross-sell continues to perform very well. and we've got nice momentum behind cross-sell between our rental customers and our first aid and safety customers. So I would say, again, that's one that's pretty evenly distributed across the board, and we're really pleased with the way that business is performing and our employee partners are executing at an extremely high level.

And our next question comes from Jason Haas from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead, Jason.

Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. I wanted to follow up on an earlier response to a question around incremental margins. I thought you said that the guidance implies incremental margins this year of 32% to 34%. Can you just clarify, like, what exact math you're doing to get there? Is that, like, the high end of guidance? Are you taking, like, yeah, can you just explain that math? Because I'm having a little trouble getting there.

Jason, good morning. This is Scott. When you're looking at the implied incremental margins at 32% to 34%, That's based on the mid and high end of the revenue range. So that's where you should focus in doing the math there to arrive at that 32% to 34% incremental.

Okay, great. All right, cool. I'll double-check that. And then I just wanted to follow up on the fire protection segment. The growth, I know you guys are a little bit of a victory around success here, but the growth moderated a little bit. But then there was a really nice improvement in the gross margin. So I wasn't sure if maybe you're like shedding some lower margin business or if there's any dynamics to discuss within FIRE there.

Yeah, Jason, this is Jim. Let me unpack that one a little bit. And I'll start on the top line with the revenue. And I would say that the revenue is really nothing specific to call out. Again, growth is going to move a little bit quarter to quarter. and our growth expectations in this business remain unchanged. We expect this to be a double-digit growth business. You know, our trailing 12 months is above 10%. It's around 10.5. And we expect to finish this year over 10%. And we love the fundamentals of this business. But you will see some variation quarter to quarter. So the first quarter was a little bit lower. We'll expect it to move around a little bit in future quarters. Now, regarding margin, I do think it's probably worth spending a minute on the margin. We had a really strong quarter in the first quarter on gross margin and fire protection. Certainly, that benefited from one extra workday, but it also benefited from some mix, a mix of business. And you will see that margin move in future quarters. And it will move for really two primary reasons in this business. One will be continued investments. And as we mentioned, we love the outlook of this business, and we love the growth trajectory of this business. So we want to continue to make investments in this business. Part of that is investing in capacity. And in this business, capacity comes in the form of technicians that can get out there and perform specialized work. And as you bring those technicians on, not quite as productive day one. So that could impact the margins go backwards there a little bit. Certainly another investment we want to make is in bench. And we know that we have a bright outlook of this future. So we need to invest in our leadership bench strength. And then last and probably most significant would be new flags. as we continue to build out a national footprint in this business as we still don't have operations in cities like Charlotte, Nashville, and Minneapolis. So we will plant new flags. We will continue to invest in this business, and that will cause a little bit of that gross margin to move from quarter to quarter. The second item that really moves the gross margin in this business is revenue mix. The business has a lot of revenue streams from the portable fire extinguishers to the alarms sort of sprinklers, and lots of ways that those streams generate revenue, things like testing, inspection, repair work, project work, and or equipment. And how that revenue moves, the mix of that revenue from quarter to quarter will impact gross margin. The first quarter of this year, we certainly benefited from the extra day, but also a very, very favorable revenue mix. So you may see that move a little bit in future quarters.

And then, Jason, this is Scott again. And just going back to your question on the math on incrementals, one thing just to remind you to keep in mind is the workday differential impact that I walked through earlier. You know, for the quarter, you know, incrementals benefited from the extra workday by 400 basis points. For the year, as you're doing the math on that incremental margin, just taking into consideration that that extra workday on the year will have 100 to 125 base point impact on incrementals.

Got it. Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you.

And our next question comes from Seth Weber from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead, Seth.

Oh, hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks. There have been a few questions and answers about cross-selling this morning.

I was wondering, is it possible to frame that for us, you know, of what your wallet share is today or kind of penetration rate or just give us some metrics around where that is today versus where you think what that what you think that could add to the business going forward thank you yeah good morning Seth this is Todd I'll call we're in the early innings of cross sell we think it can be you know important driver for our business and Jim mentioned that, you know, one of the keys around this is this isn't new money. Whenever we go to cross-sell, our customer base is solving for whatever the items that we're talking about in some manner. And so that's important for us as we move forward. Certainly, we think the more products and services we provide, the more value that the customer sees in us. And that's obviously a great indicator of our relationship with them, but we're very much in the early innings as far as cross-sell, and we're encouraged by the moves we've made and the outlook there.

Okay, thanks. And then maybe just another one on the macro. Have you seen any kind of extension in the sales cycles or contracts taking longer to execute or any kind of just pause from customers as they contemplate making these changes?

Yes, Seth. We have not seen any changes to sales cycle. And, you know, as I mentioned earlier, you know, we've got such a broad customer base that, you know, you'll see, you know, puts and takes within those. But in general, I would say the customer base is quite stable and haven't seen any changes in the base of the customers.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Curtis Nagel from Bank of America. Please go ahead, Curtis.

Terrific. Just a quick clarification point. I just want to make sure I understand how energy is factored in the guide. Scott, I think you said for the year, slightly above the range in 4Q. So does that imply, I think, somewhere around 1.8% of the percentage of sales? And then if I were to compare that for the total year in terms of rated change, what would that be? So from fiscal 27 to 26, how many basis points difference?

Yeah, thank you for the question. When we think about the energy, I'll just kind of go back and compare Q1 results to prior Q1. We were up 10 basis points over first quarter last fiscal year down versus Q4 of last fiscal year, and, you know, the guide contemplates, you know, being, you know, slightly higher than where we were in Q4, so, you know, we're not expecting to experience, you know, any headwind relative to our guide, and just to, you know, reemphasize, you know, it's a point that Todd made earlier. When you think about energy, you know, 60% of our energy costs are related to, you know, fuel for our trucks. That breaks down to about 100 basis points. So, you know, even if we experienced, you know, really elevated the fuel at the pump, let's say, you know, 40% increase for an extended period of time, that's 40 basis points of incremental cost that we would be facing, which in the whole grand scheme of things is immaterial. And we've demonstrated over time that we can overcome that. You know, Todd mentioned our culture of extracting costs from the business. You know, our global supply chain continues to operate at a high level and, you know, is a strategic advantage for us. And, you know, we just don't feel that that is going to have an impact on the business. So I would take a look at where our energy expenses are in Q1, maybe take a look at it from Q4. And if you're looking at modeling, you know, that's where I would place it.

Curtis, I'll just say that, you know, trying to predict exactly what's going to happen with the price of oil and the price of the pump, I mean, that's challenging. The vast majority of our fleet is gas. You know, diesel is a very small percentage. So not as much of exposure there by any stretch. But to Scott's point, we're contemplating an increased level for the balance of the year, and we've got other levers that we're going to extract now. So if energy's up some, we're even above where we're expecting, then we'll manage it. And I think we've demonstrated the ability to manage input costs in the past, and we're confident in our ability to meet our guide.

Okay, great. And then maybe just one last follow-up relative to cross-sale. So, yeah, obviously, you know, I've seen some really strong wins within the existing base. Is that overall, you know, specific product lines you'd point out in terms of where you're seeing, you know, outside success? Any comment there?

Yeah. Hey, Curtis. This is Jim. I'd start with that one. And yeah, I would say no, no one specific product line to call out. You know, every customer has different needs. One of the unique parts about our model is that we're a high-touch model, meaning we have representatives within their facilities on a regular cadence, and they're often able to really get to know those customers, understand their needs, understand their pay points, understand the things that they're working diligently to solve for. And we have such a broad product offering that it's really one-off on exactly what products may resonate for a particular customer at a particular time. But we like the fact that we're in there. We're building relationships. We're demonstrating our professionalism, our reliability, our consistency, how that creates convenience for the customer. And then just trying to set the stage that every time they have a need, they think about us first. and we're able to go ahead and capture a little bit more of that wallet share and have them redirect spend over to us. So really broad success across all of our product lines, you know, continuing to move. And now maybe one other thing I might just say is that we talked about this as incremental success, right? This is an area we've been working on for quite some time and we continue to see incremental success and would imagine that this will be one that we can continue to work on, but it is not an overnight change in the business. This is not a new strategy to us. Okay. Understood. Thank you.

And our next question comes from Faiza Alwi from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead, Faiza.

Yes. Hi. Thank you. I wanted to ask about the labor environment. I think you talked about improving retention, but I've seen more recently, obviously it's in the transportation market and maybe some, you know, home builders talking about a tighter labor market. And I'm curious if, one, you're seeing any signs of tightness from where you sit and just based on what you're seeing in some of the other sectors, sort of if you're planning for a tighter labor market and kind of what that entails.

Good morning, Faiz, it's Todd. Yeah, our retention levels of our employee partners is really attractive at record levels. You know, we recognize, just like customers, our partners have the ability to go and work other places, and we work really hard to provide attractive wages and benefits, but more so just the environment that they operate in and the culture. So we're quite proud of where we are with retention levels, and we try to see around the corner and anticipate those needs and we think we're well positioned. As far as in construction or in transportation, I think in particular, they're dealing with some unique circumstances there that I think are not affecting us in any broad manner whatsoever. So we feel quite good about where we are and where we're heading there.

Great, thank you. And then just to follow up, and apologies if I'm breaking any rules, but I just want to ask about the UNIFIRS transaction and whether you're going to respond to the FTC with, you know, information that they might have asked, given that you're so optimistic about the end of your timeline.

Yeah, Faisa, I appreciate your question, but we're not going to comment any further on the UNIFIRS transaction, just to avoid any speculation. But as I stated in my prepared remarks, we remain confident that we'll close the deal in the back half of calendar 2026.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Tony Kaplan from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, Tony.

Thanks so much. You talked earlier in the call about some of the higher cost dynamics. I was wondering if you would expect the industry to sort of command higher prices next year if these dynamics persist, like how you think about the outlook for pricing of the industry.

Yeah, Tony, this is Todd. I certainly cannot speak for, you know, the marketplace in general. We compete with all kinds of different companies. So all I can speak of is how we run our business. and we respect the fact that our customers have choices and we operate in an incredibly competitive market. So as a result, we're going to leverage our corporate culture and leverage our competitive urgency and our focus on making sure that we don't accept just input costs going up. And where we do have input costs, we're not going to just simply pass it along. So we've got to be better than that. And we expect that to be better of the leadership team, and they're performing. And we would expect that we'll continue to manage it in that manner. And as I mentioned, I'm incredibly proud of what the leadership team has accomplished. And I think we're well positioned for the future.

That's great. And you talked about productivity initiatives to try to offset, you know, maybe some higher costs. And so can you give an example maybe of maybe an impactful productivity initiative that you've been able to achieve recently or just areas where you think the most, you would be able to get the most bang for your buck in terms of productivity initiatives?

Hey, Tony, this is Jim. I'll start on that one. And, you know, as we look at trying to expand our margin and, you know, deliver strong financials, it always starts for us with strong top-line growth. And we know that that top-line growth creates great leverage for us. And that improves things like routing efficiency when you have more and more customers in a marketplace. When we're effective at cross-sell, the average size of each customer becomes larger. And that's a more efficient piece of revenue than a new piece of revenue. Every time we have great work on top line, it increases our capacity utilization in all of our businesses, depending on whatever the capacity is. So it always starts with a continued focus on strong top line growth and creating that leverage. And then I think it's been mentioned a number of times. We really do focus on technology and using technology to attract out things that are inefficient in our business. And we've spoken about SmartTruck and SmartTruck being available to us to continue to incrementally route more efficiently. And we've been able to grow in excess of job creation, in excess of route creation for some time now by making those routes more efficient. Garment sharing in our rental business has been enabled through technology. That's in the early innings, and we have great opportunity with garment sharing. Things like automation. We've talked about sortation, but automation shows up in a lot of different ways, and those can incrementally make you more efficient. We also love to work by our supply chain, and when we have, you know, continued revenue growth, that gives them advantage to get some volume discounts out there and do what they do. So really, all of those, I think, are our major inputs towards what I'll call making the business more efficient or extracting out the efficiencies that Todd talked about. And that's our preferred methodology for margin of extension.

Tony, this is Todd. You heard a number of things from Jim there. And it all goes back to culture. And it goes back to there is no home run where, oh, my goodness, we are getting massive productivity increase because of this. There's a tremendous amount of singles and doubles. and that is our culture, and that's what we leverage, and we would love home runs, right, but it's a lot of singles and doubles, and we're seeing around the corner, and we know we're going to need more in the future, and so we're expecting that. Jim mentioned technology. That's obviously a big one. Most companies are going to have to leverage technology to improve productivity, And as we think about technology, we think about it in two manners. Number one, making it easier for our customers to do business with us. And number two, helping our employee partners to do their jobs more effectively, making it easier to do their jobs. So both show up in a very positive way, ultimately, in our results.

Super. Thank you.

Thank you. And with that, the question and answer session has concluded. I will now turn the call back over to Jared Mattingly to close out the call.

Thank you for joining us this morning. We will issue our second quarter of fiscal 2027 financial results in December. We look forward to speaking with you again at that time.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.