Unifirst Corp Q1 FY2024 Earnings Call

Greetings, and welcome to the UniFirst Corporation First Quarter Earnings Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steven Sintros, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. I'm Steven Sintros, UniFirst’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Joining me today is Shane O'Connor, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We'd like to welcome you to UniFirst Corporation's conference call to review our first quarter results for the fiscal year 2024. This call will be on listen-only mode until we complete our prepared remarks, but first, a brief disclaimer. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. The words 'anticipate', 'optimistic', 'believe', 'estimate', 'expect', 'intend', and similar expressions that indicate future events and trends identify forward-looking statements. Actual future results may differ materially from those anticipated, depending on a variety of risk factors. For more information, please refer to the discussion of these risk factors in our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We're pleased with the results of our first quarter, which represent a solid start to our new fiscal year. I want to thank all of our team partners who continue to always deliver for each other and our customers as we strive towards our vision of being recognized as the best service provider in the industry. All while living our mission of serving the people who do the hard work. The people who do the hard work are the workforce that keeps our communities up and running. So many of them are our existing and prospective customers, as well as our own UniFirst team partners. Our mission is to support those employees by providing the right products and services that allow them to do their job successfully and safely. Whether that means providing uniforms, work wear, facility service, first aid and safety, clean room or other products and services, our goal is to partner with our customers to ensure we have the right structure to ensure that we structure the right program, products, and services for their business and their teams. Overall, revenues in our first quarter were up 9.5% compared to the first quarter of 2023. Consolidated growth benefited from the acquisition of Clean Uniform in March of 2023 and strong growth in our first aid and safety division. Core Laundry operations organic growth in the quarter was 5.2%. Profits were up over 20% in the quarter compared to a year ago, largely driven by the growth of our top line and lower costs incurred during the quarter related to key initiatives. As a reminder, we have been incurring costs over the last couple of years related to our technology transformation, as well as a rebranding initiative. As expected, these costs are declining due to the completion of our rebranding, as well as activities surrounding the deployment of our CRM largely winding down. We continue to incur expenses related to our ERP project. However, as we enter the implementation phases of the project, more costs are being capitalized. Our performance in the quarter from a new account sales perspective was very strong, exceeding our new sales from a year ago at this time by a healthy margin. Part of this outcome was driven by the addition of a top three account in our Core Laundry operations. We continue to sell prospects on the value that UniFirst can bring to their businesses. Our approach is a consultative one, where, as I mentioned, we focus on creating the right programs with the right products for our customers. Conversely, we did experience more headwinds against our top line performance as the quarter progressed in the areas of price and customer retention. And although still stable overall, we are getting less tailwind from wearer levels currently than we were a year ago. Although our first quarter top line results were well within our range of expectations, we do expect these items will pressure organic growth as the year progresses. As we look towards the rest of fiscal 2024 and beyond, margin improvement will certainly be a key focus of the organization. Executing on our growth model while also managing costs in areas we control will be critical, all while assuring we don't impact the ability to execute on our transformational initiatives or adversely affect customer service levels. In addition to day-to-day execution, we are focused on margin opportunities in many areas. We continue to optimize the use of our new CRM, including leveraging some of Clean's proprietary technology across all of UniFirst. Areas such as strategic pricing and account profitability, as well as strategic manufacturing and sourcing, represent significant opportunities. Although some of these benefits going forward will be more significantly enabled through the implementation of our ERP, we continue to focus on these areas and others that we feel can move the needle in the near to midterm. Our Clean acquisition continues to perform very well with several recent wins, resigning long-term customer relationships. This shows the confidence that Clean's customer base has in joining UniFirst and continuing to receive industry-leading service. We continue to believe very strongly in the bright future of our first aid and safety division which grew 22.4% in the current quarter compared to the first quarter of 2023. We continue to make investments in sales and service infrastructure of this segment to expand our footprint and ensure we can reach existing UniFirst customers as well as new prospects in the markets that have a strong need for these products and services. As we progress, increasing route density in addition to penetrating customers with the full breadth of services that we provide will be critical steps in building the profitability of this segment. As I mentioned last quarter, the company continues to make solid progress and contributions in the area of environmental, social, and governance. The nature of the industry and rental model has always allowed us and the company to do our part in enhancing the economy's environmental footprint, given our role as a natural recycler, as well as the better utilization of resources that operations like ours enable. As an example of our efforts, during the quarter we engaged a company that is going to convert the remainder of our operating plants and our core laundry to energy-efficient LED lighting. We continue to be focused on making the right investments to meaningfully impact the environment, support our customers, and have a positive impact on our business. With that, I'll turn the call over to Shane, who will provide more details of our first quarter, as well as the outlook for the remainder of 2024.

Thanks, Steve. In our first quarter of 2024, consolidated revenues were $593.5 million, up 9.5% from $541.8 million a year ago. Consolidated operating income increased to $53.1 million from $43.4 million, or 22.4%. Net income for the quarter increased to $42.3 million, or $2.26 per diluted share, from $34 million or $1.81 per diluted share. Consolidated EBITDA increased to $86.2 million compared to $69.7 million in the prior year or 23.7%. Our financial results in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and 2023 included approximately $2.9 million and $10 million, respectively, of costs directly attributable to the key initiatives that Steve discussed. The effect of these items on the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and 2023 combines to decrease operating income and EBITDA by $2.9 million and $10 million respectively, net income by $2.4 million and $7.6 million, respectively, and EPS by $0.12 and $0.40 respectively. Net income and EPS also benefited from approximately $2.1 million of interest income recognized in the first quarter of 2024 as a result of a tax dispute we were able to favorably resolve. Our core laundry operations revenues for the quarter were $524 million, up 9.8% from the first quarter of 2023. Core laundry organic growth, which adjusts for the estimated effect of acquisitions, as well as fluctuations in the Canadian dollar was 5.2%. This solid organic growth rate was primarily the result of strong new account sales and improved pricing related to the efforts over the last year to share with our customers the cost increases that we incurred in our business. Core Laundry operating margin increased to 8% for the quarter, or $42.1 million, from 7.1% in the prior year, or $33.8 million, and the segment's EBITDA margin increased to 14% from 12.2%. The costs we incurred related to our key initiatives were recorded to the core laundry operations segment and combined to decrease the core laundry operating and EBITDA margins for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and 2023 by 0.6% and 2.1%, respectively. Excluding these items, the segment's operating and EBITDA margins were also impacted by higher costs we incurred related to investments we made in building our corporate capabilities over the last year and higher merchandise costs. These items were partially offset by lower energy costs during the quarter, which decreased to 4.1% of revenues in the first quarter of 2024, down from 4.7% in 2023. Revenues from our specialty garment segment, which deliver specialized nuclear decontamination and cleanroom products and services increased slightly to $44.7 million from $44.1 million in the prior year, or 1.3%. This increase was primarily due to growth in our cleanroom operations. The segment's operating margin increased to 27.1% from 23.1%, primarily the result of lower merchandise costs in our cleanroom operations. As we've mentioned in the past, this segment's results can vary significantly from period to period due to seasonality as well as timing and profitability of nuclear reactor outages and projects. Our first aid segment's revenues increased to $24.9 million from $20.3 million in the prior year or 22.4%. However, the segment had an operating loss of $1.1 million during the quarter. These results continue to reflect the investments we've been making in our first aid van business that Steve discussed. At the end of our first fiscal quarter, we continued to reflect a solid balance sheet and financial position with no long-term debt and cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaling $88.8 million. Cash provided by operating activities for the first quarter increased to $45.7 million from $27.7 million in the prior year, or 64.9%, primarily due to our improved profitability. And we continue to invest in our future with capital expenditures during this period of $39.1 million. I'd like to take this opportunity to provide an update on our outlook. At this time, we continue to expect our full-year consolidated revenues for fiscal 2024 will be between $2.415 billion and $2.435 billion. However, due to recent trends in our core Laundry operations in the latter half of the quarter, we anticipate that the lower half of this range is more likely. We continue to expect diluted earnings per share to be between $6.52 and $7.16. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we would now be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you. Our first question comes from Manav Patnaik with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, good morning. This is Ronan Kennedy on for Manav. Happy New Year and thank you for taking my question.

Good morning.

Good morning. Could you please kind of unpack with regards to what you alluded to, I think, the headwinds from price and customer retention, also less of a tailwind from wearer levels, and if that is specifically the driver of guiding to the lower half of guidance, you know, and what you anticipate based on what had played out in the latter stages of the quarter, just if you could unpack that in further detail, please.

Certainly, Ronan. The reason we've adjusted our guidance and highlighted that the lower end is now more probable is that, during the latter part of the quarter, we noticed an increase in price sensitivity among customers. This realization has come in light of some moderating costs, including energy. It is somewhat unexpected compared to our initial expectations for the year, and early changes like these tend to have a greater impact as the year progresses. Regarding customer retention, we noticed a decline in trends during the latter half of last year, which continued into this quarter. We also experienced a few strategic losses that were recognized during this period. Such changes tend to have a more significant effect when viewed over the entire year. As for additions versus reductions, while we've described the overall environment as relatively stable, it does appear that we are seeing fewer new wearer additions compared to both a year ago and the latter half of last year. While it hasn't shifted drastically negative, it is slightly below our expectations for this quarter.

That's helpful. Thank you. And then, could I just ask for your assessment or characterization of demand and what the conversations with customers are like and how that's incorporated within the guidance for the remainder of the year?

Yes, in general, we guide looking at things in the environment as we see them today. We often make the comment that we don't assume sort of more deterioration if there were to be broader pickup in wearer reductions at our customers. We don't really build that in. That being said, I'm not sure that we're hearing loud from our customers that that's imminent. I think people are taking a little bit more of a cautious tone out there with respect to hiring, but we're also not hearing broad calls for reductions. I mean, one of the things that makes us report at this time of year somewhat unique is that a lot of those conversations with customers start to become clearer sort of after the holidays as they get into their new year, see what demand looks like coming out of the holidays and set their plan going into their calendar year. So, it's a little bit of a tricky time having those conversations this time of year. But in general, we're not hearing anything that should raise major flags, but some caution.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Ronan.

Our next question comes to the line of Andy Wittmann with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to focus on customer retention, Steve. In previous quarters, you mentioned that it might be moderating somewhat. What do you attribute to the customer retention? Are customers closing their doors? Are your pricing initiatives driving them away? You mentioned "strategic losses," which suggests you're okay with losing some customers if their accounts weren't profitable. Could you elaborate on the factors influencing retention in more detail?

Sure. It's a combination of various factors. In some cases, we opted not to proceed with certain strategic accounts. I believe the pricing environment plays a role, particularly in how we assess retention. When we evaluate retention, we consider the overall impact of these accounts over the past year. During the period of significant inflation, as we sought to maximize our revenues from customers, it's possible that losing an account may relate to pricing, even if it's not the sole reason for the loss. If an account is lost, the pricing may have been higher than it would have been a year or so earlier. Hence, I believe the pricing aspect is influencing our numbers. Additionally, when gaining a new account while losing another, those accounts might have similar profiles but differing pricing structures. Accounts that have been with us longer generally command higher prices, especially during this inflationary period. So pricing has indeed played a role. While we shouldn’t overlook the competitive landscape, I don’t think it's the primary factor here. It's largely about the pricing environment and how customers are navigating inflation, which may lead them to consider bidding out their accounts, and this has had an effect. We have observed some customers struggling with payments, among other issues. Yet, we have noted an uptick in most of the metrics we monitor related to retention. I hope this clarifies things a bit.

Thank you for the insight on that. Next, I would like to discuss merchandise costs. I feel like I've been asking about this every quarter, but I will bring it up again. Given the context of merchandise costs, it has been a challenge for your margins for some time. It seems reasonable to consider that merchandise costs might turn positive in the next few quarters. It wasn’t the case this quarter, but could you quantify the year-over-year impact of merchandise costs and share your thoughts on when you believe it might turn positive?

Yeah, I can do that. So when we talk about our merchandise costs coming into the year, we had sort of said our expectations were that merchandise was going to be like a 10 to 20 basis point headwind, right? Obviously, that headwind was greatly reduced from what we had been seeing for the previous couple of years as our merchandise levels adjusted coming out of the pandemic. We still expect that that's going to be the headwind that we're going to see. It's relatively moderate in the quarter. It was a headwind. It was only 20 basis points. At this point in time, given a 10 to 20 basis point headwind, we would characterize that as merchandise flattening. That's sort of where we're at from the maturity of our merchandise. We don't have any expectation or we haven't included in our guidance an assumption that merchandise is going to flip and become a benefit throughout the remainder of 2024. At this point in time, our expectation is that it's going to be relatively flat with just a little bit of a headwind.

Okay. That's helpful. Please continue, Steve.

I was going to add one thing there. And it's not a major item, but I did mention that we added a large account in the quarter, a big infusion of merchandise with that account as well. And given we're talking about merchandise being relatively flat, that is an item that will cause a headwind over this course of this year until it kind of falls off and is amortized next year at this time. So that's a factor in there as well.

Yes, that makes sense. I have a couple of technical questions. Was there any change to the amount of key initiative costs or other factors this quarter? In your press release about your outlook, you didn't provide the same level of detail as last quarter when you gave your initial guidance. I was wondering if there were any changes to the assumptions, such as margin rates, key initiative costs, or other details mentioned previously but not reiterated this quarter.

Yes, largely we're maintaining that guidance, which is one of the reasons why we didn't include the additional detail because it would have been somewhat redundant. My expectation or what's included in my model at this point in time continues to be about $16 million worth of initiative costs. Tax rate for the year continues to be 25%. Largely, we're maintaining the expectations from the guidance as it relates to the lower half of the range, the commentary there. 20 to 30 basis points of organic growth within my core Laundry is probably at risk based on some of the things we had seen in the latter half. That revenue impact would pressure my margins, but at this point in time, we have some things that are going in the opposite direction, most notably in the form of energy. Right? Previously when I had guided or provided guidance, my expectation was that energy was going to be about 4.3% of revenues for the year. At this point in time based on recent fluctuations in fuel prices, I now expect that to be about 4.1%. So our expectation is that's going to be able to offset maybe some of the pressure related to the revenue trends.

All right. This is all super helpful. I'm going to just sneak in one other one. Sorry. Just on the comment on the $2.1 million on the interest expense line, you had a tax dispute that was settled. Was there like interest on the cash taxes that was implicit and that caused you to recognize that as income this quarter? Is that what it is, Shane? Or I don't know, I'm just falling here. You tell us.

No, that's exactly right. There was an ongoing tax dispute and as a result of the favorable resolution, we received certain interest related to that. So we were able to recognize that in the quarter.

It's been going on for a long time.

Yes, this is the one that's been disclosed in your filings, presumably with the Mexican government, I think it was?

No, interestingly, it was related to Mexico, but it was not the one we disclosed in the filing. This was a separate issue from about three or four years ago, maybe more, that was resolved, allowing us to recoup the interest. However, the other one is still pending.

Yes, usually when you have those tax disputes, you owe money and those higher interest rates are somewhat punitive. When you're actually getting money back, they disproportionately benefit you too. So that was our experience in the quarter.

Thank you. Have a great day, guys.

Thanks, Andy.

Our next question comes from the line of Josh Chan with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, good morning, Steven and Shane. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

Hi. I was wondering if there's any conclusions that you can draw from, I guess, the accounts that you're losing or walking away from versus the large account that you're winning? What's causing the losses and what's causing you to win the large account specifically?

Yes, great question. I mean, at the end of the day, I sort of alluded to, as we sell our value proposition, go into accounts, sell them on the right program with the right products for those customers. We sell on our process, we sell on our procedures, our ability to execute. At times, if those accounts feel like they haven't been receiving the service that they want, it provides an opportunity. I mean, the same goes just quite frankly if we lose an account. Again, it doesn't all fall into one category when you lose a piece of business. Sometimes it's strategic, like I mentioned. Sometimes it can be lack of execution by the route driver if we've had more turnover, and sometimes it can be that an account is going out to bid and they get a very competitive offer and we struggle to match that offer. So it's really, on both sides, it's execution, it's selling our value, it's continuing to provide consistent service and showing that we can, as I talk about our vision, be recognized as the service provider that's going to be the best for those customers. So, I know it's a little bit of a generic answer, but the devil's in the execution on both sides.

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Steven. And then I guess if I can follow up on this specialty segment, I was under the impression that this quarter things would be a little bit weaker than what you showed because of the nuclear dynamic. So I was just wondering if the full year could be a little stronger than what you had previously guided based on just the strength this quarter?

I think right now that is somewhat true. We probably have the full year a little bit ahead as to where it was before. We do still expect the rest of the year to show some drop-off and not to necessarily replicate some of the strengths in the first quarter. There were some sort of one-time things in the first quarter that sort of buoyed it a bit. Again, that segment's made up of the two sub-segments, the clean room and the nuclear. The clean room continues to be very consistent. And as we talked about in our last earnings call, we do expect kind of the nuclear slowdown based on some reduction in business with some of our Canadian customers. So we still expect that trend. But right now in the model, the full year does have that segment a little bit ahead of what we had guided, but still below last year's profitability.

Perfect. Thank you for the insights about the rest of the year.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Tim Mulrooney with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, good morning. This is Luke McFadden on for Tim. Thanks for taking our questions today.

Absolutely.

So your first aid business had a nice start for the fiscal year, has performed well for several consecutive quarters now. Should we still expect to see that business inflect into positive profitability by year-end? And how should we think about the cadence of profitability as we move through fiscal 2024?

Yes, look, for the full year, we think that the division can be around break-even. So we do expect a little bit of a pickup in profitability over the course of the year. We're still at that point in our investment in this division where it's more about expanding the breadth of our service offerings and/or our geographic offerings, I should say or coverage. And over the course of the next couple of years, and we're starting it this year, we really are starting to focus more on filling out the customers with the products and services, filling out the routes with more density. And that will start to turn the profitability. But for the most part, our guidance for the full year has us in that sort of treading water around break-even.

Great, very helpful. And then if I can follow up with just one more. I know you provided just a bit of color on kind of how early year conversations have been going with customers. But maybe just as a follow-up to that, are there any of your end markets that are showing particularly outside strength or weakness as you're looking at them today?

No, I wouldn't say so. I think that as we kind of look at metrics and wearer levels across the country, there really aren't any particular pockets that jump out. Something I've been watching is we've had a couple of decent years in the energy sector and that continues to be pretty solid as long as oil prices hold up. But no, I wouldn't say we're seeing any particular geographic or industry-driven trends that are worth noting.

Understood. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from line of Andrew Steinerman with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, Shane. I just want to confirm something that I think is pretty clear, but I just wanted to confirm it. In the 2024 guide, when you point to the lower half of the range, I think that's just for revenues and not for EPS. I think for 2024 EPS you're still pointing to the whole range. I just wanted to confirm that. But could you also update us on what you're assuming for interest in 2024? You're kind of given the first quarter benefit and you can imagine what I really want to kind of point to is like, what are you embedding in terms of the margin progress through the year and what gives you confidence in that margin outlook?

Yes, could you please repeat the first part of the question? I apologize for that.

Okay, so it's a multi-part question. Sorry. So the first one, I just want to confirm when you point to the lower half of the range for the guide, I think that's just a comment for revenues and not a comment for EPS. In other words, I think when you say lower half, you're talking about revenues and for EPS, you're still pointing to the whole range.

Yes, yes. Sorry about that. No, that's correct. The comments about lower half is just top line related. We are still pointing to the full range from an EPS perspective. From an interest perspective, you take a look at my interest income in the first quarter. It largely benefited from about $2.1 million in the first quarter. Subsequent to that, my expectation is that the interest income I'll realize will be Q1's run rate exclusive of that $2.1 million, so about $1 million worth of interest income per quarter.

Andrew, regarding the second part of your question about our confidence and margin outlook for the rest of the year, I want to point out that Shane touched on our merchandise situation. Overall, when you assess our costs, there's more stabilization compared to the last couple of years, which saw a lot of fluctuations and increases. Merchandise plays a significant role in this. While the labor environment remains challenging, it's somewhat less so in terms of staffing and wage pressures. This doesn't mean that costs have decreased, but there is greater confidence in them over the next few quarters compared to the previous years when we faced significant inflation. Additionally, the energy costs that Shane mentioned are also a positive factor we've factored into our models.

Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research. Please go ahead with your question.

Thank you. Good morning. Steve, you mentioned some developments regarding certain customers potentially delaying payments. Overall, how would you evaluate the health of your customer base and their ongoing viability? Have there been any changes?

No, I wouldn't say that when we look across our customer base, we think that there's any sort of weakening of overall financial viability and how we look at that. So no, I think stable in that area. I think my commentary was more just around probably a normal amount of caution given the environment for their businesses and their growth outlooks and so on and so forth as we look over the course of the year.

And Shane, you talked about obviously energy hopefully benefiting you for the rest of the year, assuming things kind of stay where they are. And I know previously you were able to put in some fuel surcharges because of fuel prices. Are those surcharges still in effect or are they part of maybe some of the pricing dynamics that you've talked about?

So this is Steve. We did take a step back in the energy surcharge last year at some point. Right now we're sort of holding even. We sort of have a schedule that we're looking at. I do think that lower energy prices do put some pressure, not just on the surcharge, which is a relatively smaller amount at this point in the grand scheme of things, but customers sort of pushing back on general price increases and new account pricing and so on. So yes, I would say indirectly what you're saying is true that the lower energy prices is part of, I think, the pressure on price.

And then one last question. I know you've been inquisitive at least last year, and you've looked at acquisitions. I'm wondering if you're seeing any change in the environment in terms of pricing or maybe what people might be willing or not willing to do?

I wouldn't say any real change. I mean, I think if you kind of look over the last number of years, aside from Clean, which was a larger deal and a little bit of a larger one that's happened in the industry over the last number of years. There continues to be a small handful of potential deals that emerge and people kind of test the waters. And I think that really continues. I think the sellers in this industry continue to be driven by sort of their planning and succession planning and family dynamics, and that continues to be true. I think the multiples have gone up. And as I've said before, we will be aggressive for deals that we think make sense and are in either strategic geographies for us or that we feel the quality of the business really warrants that. So I would say that really hasn't changed much over the last couple of years.

Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back to you.

Great. I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today to review our first quarter results and we look forward to speaking with everybody again in March when we expect to be reporting our second quarter performance. Thank you and have a great day. Happy New Year.

That does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your line.