UNIFIRST CORP

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external reporting purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Management has assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of August 30, 2025. In making its assessment, management has utilized the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (“COSO”) of the Treadway Commission in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013 Framework). Management concluded that based on its assessment, our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of August 30, 2025.

Material Weakness

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

As disclosed in Part II, Item 9A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2024, we previously identified a material weakness related to deficiencies in our manage change and manage access processes that were not designed and operating effectively. These deficiencies affected all financially relevant business processes. While we worked during fiscal 2025 to remediate the previously identified material weakness, we were unable to fully remediate the material weakness prior to the end of fiscal 2025. However, we made significant progress in remediating the design and operating effectiveness of our control environment and successfully addressed IT General Controls (ITGCs) for several key financial systems, including our legacy ERP platform and supporting tools and utilities. At the end of fiscal 2025, the material weakness had been narrowed to deficiencies related to our CRM system which affected revenue and receivables as well as a group of legacy applications which affected revenue and receivables, supply inventory and merchandise in service.

Consequently, our automated and manual business process controls that rely upon information from the IT systems were also deemed ineffective because they could have been adversely impacted.

Our independent registered accounting firm, Ernst & Young LLP, has issued an adverse audit report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of August 30, 2025, which is included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. As a result of the identification of the material weakness, and prior to filing this Annual Report, along with our auditors, we performed further analysis and completed additional procedures intended to ensure our consolidated financial statements for the years ended August 30, 2025 and August 31, 2024 fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the Company and have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Based on these procedures and analysis, and notwithstanding the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, our management has concluded that our consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included in this Annual Report fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the Company and have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have certified that, based on each such officer’s knowledge, the financial statements, as well as the other financial information included in this Annual Report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the Company as of, and for, the periods presented in this Annual Report. Ernst & Young LLP has issued an unqualified opinion on our financial statements, which is included in Part IV of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Remediation

Our management remains committed to maintaining a strong internal control environment. In response to the material weakness, we implemented a number of remedial actions, including (i) redesigning our manage change and manage access processes and controls, (ii) invested additional resources to enhance oversight and involvement from our recently created Process, Risk and Controls group, (iii) strengthened our internal policies related to ITGCs, (iv) enhanced training and awareness programs addressing ITGCs and policies, including further education of control owners regarding the principles and requirements of each control, and (v) progressed our implementation of an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system, which will provide enhanced control over the provisioning of user access.

As a result of these efforts, we have made significant progress in remediating the design and operating effectiveness of our control environment and successfully addressed IT General Controls (ITGCs) for several key financial systems, including our legacy ERP platform and supporting tools and utilities.

We also advanced remediation efforts related to deficiencies in change management and access management for our CRM system and certain legacy applications, though some action items remained incomplete at the end of fiscal 2025.

Our focus remains on resolving the design and operational issues tied to change and access management in both the CRM and other legacy applications. At the same time, we are investing in broader IT system improvements, including the implementation of Oracle Cloud ERP. While unanticipated delays and complexities may extend the timeline, our plan at this time is to fully remediate the identified material weakness by the end of fiscal 2026.