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Investor Relations Contact Shane O'Connor , Executive Vice President & CFO UniFirst Corporation 978-658-8888 shane_oconnor@unifirst.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UNIFIRST ANNOUNCES FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE THIRD QUARTER OF FISCAL 2021 Wilmington , MA - June 30 , 2021 - UniFirst Corporation ( NYSE : UNF ) ( the " Company , ” “ UniFirst " or " we " ) today reported results for its third quarter ended May 29 , 2021 as compared to the corresponding period in the prior fiscal year : Q3 2021 Financial Highlights Consolidated revenues for the third quarter increased 4.2 % to $ 464.3 million . Operating income was $ 54.2 million , an increase of 95.5 % . Exhibit 99 The quarterly tax rate increased to 22.9 % compared to 21.8 % in the prior year . Net income increased to $ 42.0 million , or 97.4 % . Diluted earnings per share increased to $ 2.21 from $ 1.12 , or 97.3 % . Steven Sintros , UniFirst President and Chief Executive Officer , said , " For over a year , our Team Partners have continued to put forth tremendous efforts in the face of the many obstacles created by the pandemic . They have worked extremely hard to take care of each other and our customers during these challenging times and I want to personally thank them for their extraordinary performance . ” Segment Reporting Highlights Core Laundry Operations Revenues for the quarter increased 5.3 % to $ 409.0 million primarily driven by the COVID - 19 pandemic significantly impacting our customers ' operations and wearer levels in the prior year comparable period . This increase was partially offset by a large direct sale of $ 20.1 million also in the prior year . Operating margin increased to 11.2 % from 5.1 % . The increase was primarily driven by several items affecting our prior year comparable period , including the impact of the decline in rental revenues on our cost structure , higher cost of revenues related to the large $ 20.1 million direct sale , higher bad debt expense and additional costs the Company incurred responding to the COVID - 19 pandemic . Specialty Garments Revenues for the quarter were $ 38.2 million , an increase of 5.7 % . This increase was primarily due to growth in our cleanroom operations as well as growth in European nuclear operations . Operating margin increased to 21.7 % from 17.6 % a year ago . This increase was primarily due to lower merchandise costs and bad debt expense as percentage of revenue as well as costs incurred in the prior year responding to the COVID - 19 pandemic . These benefits were partially offset by higher healthcare and payroll - related costs as a percentage of revenue . 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 . Balance Sheet and Capital Allocation Cash , cash equivalents and short - term investments totaled $ 535.0 million as of May 29 , 2021 . The Company had no long - term debt outstanding as of May 29 , 2021 . In the third fiscal quarter of 2021 , the Company did not purchase any shares of common stock under its previously announced $ 100.0 million stock repurchase program . As of May 29 , 2021 , the Company had repurchased a total of 368,117 shares of common stock for a total of $ 61.8 million under the program . Weighted average shares outstanding – Diluted for the third quarter of fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2020 were 19.1 million and 19.0 million shares , respectively .