UNIFIRST CORP

GENERAL

UniFirst Corporation, a corporation organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1950, together with its subsidiaries, hereunder referred to as “we”, “our”, the “Company”, or “UniFirst”, is one of the leading providers in the supply and servicing of uniform and workwear programs, facility management and service products, as well as first aid and safety supplies and services in North America. We design, manufacture, personalize, rent, clean, deliver, and sell a wide range of uniforms and protective clothing. We also rent and sell industrial wiping products, floor mats, facility management and service products and other non-garment items, and provide restroom and cleaning supplies and first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies as well as certain safety training to a variety of manufacturers, retailers and service companies. Our safety offerings also include fire protection services, such as inspection, testing, and maintenance of fire extinguishers and other fire safety equipment. We serve businesses of all sizes across multiple industry sectors.

Our principal services include providing customers with uniforms and other non-garment items, picking up soiled uniforms or other items on a periodic basis (usually weekly), and delivering, at the same time, cleaned and processed items. We offer uniforms in a wide variety of styles, colors, sizes and fabrics, often with personalized emblems selected by the customer. Our centralized services, specialized equipment and economies of scale generally allow us to be more cost effective in providing garment solutions and services than customers could be themselves, including reducing the burden of managing logistics, offsetting costs, and helping with compliance where the garments may serve a role in safe operations. During the fiscal year ended August 29, 2026 (“fiscal 2026”), we manufactured approximately 65% of the garments placed in service. Because we design and manufacture a majority of our own uniforms and protective clothes, we can produce custom garment programs for our larger customers, offer a diverse range of such designs within our standard line of garments and better control the quality, price and speed at which we service such garments.

Our business has three reporting and operating segments: Uniform & Facility Service Solutions, First Aid & Safety Solutions and Other. All financial information presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K has been recast to reflect this segment structure for all periods presented.

Uniform & Facility Service Solutions: The Uniform & Facility Service Solutions reporting segment designs, manufactures, purchases, rents, cleans, delivers and sells uniforms and protective clothing and non-garment items in the U.S. and Canada. The segment, through our cleanroom operations, also purchases, rents, cleans, delivers and sells specialty garments and non-garment items primarily for cleanroom applications and provides cleanroom cleaning at limited customer locations. Additionally, the Uniform & Facility Service Solutions segment consists of our distribution center, sales and marketing, information systems, engineering, materials management, manufacturing planning, finance, budgeting, human resources, other general and administrative costs and interest expense.

First Aid & Safety Solutions: The First Aid & Safety Solutions reporting segment sells first aid cabinet services, non-prescription medicines, safety supplies, fire safety and provides certain safety training to both end users and wholesalers.

Other: This reporting segment consists of our nuclear garment decontamination business. The segment purchases, rents, cleans, delivers and sells specialty garments and non-garment items primarily for nuclear applications.

For a further discussion of our reporting segments, refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and Note 14, “Segment Reporting” to our Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

On March 10, 2026, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with Cintas Corporation (“Cintas”), Bruin Merger Sub I, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cintas (“Merger Sub Inc.”), and Bruin Merger Sub II, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cintas (“Merger Sub LLC”).

Pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Merger Agreement, at the effective time of the merger of the Company with and into Merger Sub Inc., each share of (i) our common stock, par value $0.10 per share, and (ii) our Class B common stock, par value $0.10 per share, (clauses (i) and (ii), our “Common Stock”) issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of this merger (other than shares of our Common Stock held in our treasury or held directly by a subsidiary of the Company, Cintas, Merger Sub Inc. or Merger Sub LLC) will convert into the right to receive: $155.00 in cash and 0.7720 shares of fully paid and nonassessable Cintas common stock (the “Merger Consideration”). No fractional shares of Cintas common stock will be issued in this merger, and holders of our Common Stock will receive cash in lieu of any fractional shares of Cintas common stock.

For more information, refer to our Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on March 11, 2026 and June 12, 2026 and Note 1, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies.”

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

We provide our customers with personalized workplace uniforms and protective work clothing in a broad range of styles, colors, sizes and fabrics. Our uniform products include shirts, pants, jackets, coveralls, lab coats, smocks, aprons and specialized protective wear, such as flame resistant and high visibility garments. At certain specialized facilities, like nuclear plants, we also decontaminate and clean clothes and other items which may have been exposed to radioactive materials and service special cleanroom protective wear and facilities. We also offer non-garment items and services, such as industrial wiping products, floor mats, dry and wet mops, restroom and cleaning supplies and other textile products. We also sell first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies, provide certain safety training and maintain wholesale distribution and pill packaging operations for non-prescription medicines.

We offer our customers a range of garment service options, including full-service rental programs in which garments are cleaned and serviced by us, lease programs in which garments are cleaned and maintained by individual employees and purchase programs to buy garments and related items directly. As part of our rental business, we pick up a customer’s soiled uniforms and/or other items on a periodic basis (usually weekly) and deliver back cleaned and processed replacement items. We believe our centralized services, specialized equipment and economies of scale generally allow us to be more cost effective in providing garment and related services than customers could be themselves, particularly those customers with high employee turnover rates. Our uniform program is intended not only to help our customers foster a company identity, but also to enhance their corporate image and improve employee safety, productivity and morale. We primarily serve our customers pursuant to written service contracts that range in duration from three to five years.

Historically, our revenues and operating results have varied from quarter to quarter and are expected to continue to fluctuate in the future. These fluctuations have been due to a number of factors, including: general economic conditions in our served markets; the timing of acquisitions and of commencing start-up operations and related costs; our effectiveness in integrating acquired businesses and start-up operations; the timing of nuclear plant outages; volatility in raw material and labor costs; capital expenditures; seasonal rental and purchasing patterns of our customers; and price changes in response to competitive factors. In addition, our operating results historically have been lower during the second and fourth fiscal quarters than during the other quarters of the fiscal year. The operating results for any historical quarter are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for an entire fiscal year or any other interim periods.

Our fiscal year ends on the last Saturday in August and generally consists of 52 weeks; however, approximately every five or six years includes a 53rd week, which can affect year-over-year comparability of revenues and operating results.

CUSTOMERS

We serve businesses of all sizes across multiple industries and sectors. We provide our products and services to over 300,000 customer locations in the United States (“U.S.”), Canada and Europe. In the last three years, no individual customer in any of our segments accounted for greater than 10% of our total revenue.

MARKETING, SALES, AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

We market our products and services to a diverse customer base and to prospects that range across virtually all industry segments. We have built and maintain an extensive, proprietary database of prescreened and qualified business prospects that have been sourced from our various promotional initiatives, including mailers, website contacts, advertising responses, sales calls and lists purchased from third-party providers. These prospect records serve as a primary targeting resource for our professional sales and marketing organization and are constantly updated, expanded and maintained by an in-house team of specialist database qualifiers and managers.

We employ a large team of trained professional sales representatives to market our services to potential customers and develop new accounts. While most of our sales representatives present a full range of service solutions, we also have specialized sales and service teams for specific customer needs.

We believe that effective customer service is the most crucial element in developing and maintaining our market position. Our commitment to service excellence is reflected throughout our organization. Our information systems and our support service center enable us to respond to customer inquiries or issues within 24 hours, and our service personnel are specially trained to handle the daily contact work necessary to effectively manage customer relations. We measure the speed and accuracy of our customer service efforts weekly and continuously survey, record and report satisfaction levels to evaluate current performance and highlight areas for improvement.

COMPETITION

The uniform rental and sales industry is highly competitive. Our principal competitors offering uniform rental programs include Cintas, Alsco, and Vestis Corporation. Outside of these national competitors we also compete with numerous other service providers and uniform sellers with regional and local presence. In addition to our traditional rental competitors, we also compete with businesses that focus on selling uniforms, facility service products, and other related items directly to end customers. The direct sales market is highly fragmented and includes national, regional, and local providers. The level of competition varies by geographic area and product category. The principal sources of differentiation in the industry are the range of products and services, the quality of service, and pricing. Businesses may also elect to perform certain services internally rather than outsource them. Finally, our biggest competition is from the vast number of businesses choosing to buy their uniforms from various on-line and other retailers and choosing to perform certain services internally.

MANUFACTURING AND SOURCING

We manufactured approximately 65% of all garments we placed in service during fiscal 2026. These garments were primarily work pants and shirts manufactured at two of our plants located in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, one plant located in Managua, Nicaragua, as well as at subcontracted manufacturers that we utilize within our sourcing strategy to balance demand and optimize costs. The balance of the garments used in our programs are purchased from a variety of industry suppliers. While we currently acquire the raw materials with which we produce our garments from a limited number of suppliers, we believe that such materials are generally readily available from other sources. To date, we have experienced limited difficulty in obtaining any of our raw materials or supplies, although at certain times, we have sourced raw materials or supplies from alternative sources or experienced cost increases for such raw materials and supplies. Currently, we also manufacture approximately 99% of the mats we place in service at our plant in Cave City, Arkansas.

HUMAN CAPITAL

As of August 29, 2026, we employed approximately 15,100 team partners across our operations. Our people are fundamental to our success, and we strive to recruit, develop, and retain the best talent. We provide continuous training and development opportunities, including our leadership development program, which offers leadership education, operational knowledge, and hands-on business experience within the industrial laundry and facility services industry to develop future managers.

We seek to foster an employee-intimate culture and believe our workforce is critical to our long-term success and to the service of our customers. We focus on the safety and well-being of our team partners by providing regular safety training, personal protective equipment, and a comprehensive suite of healthcare, wellness, and other employee benefits.

Less than 1% of our U.S. employees are represented by a union under a collective bargaining agreement, and we consider our employee relations to be good.

GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS

We, like our competitors, are subject to various federal, state and local laws and regulations governing, among other things, air emissions, wastewater discharges, and the generation, handling, storage, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes and other substances. In particular, industrial laundries currently use and must properly dispose of detergent wastewater and other residues, and, in the past, used perchloroethylene and other dry cleaning solvents. We are attentive to the environmental concerns surrounding the disposal of these materials and have, through the years, taken measures to avoid their improper disposal. We have settled, or contributed to the settlement of, past actions or claims brought against us relating to the disposal of hazardous materials at several sites and there can be no assurance that we will not have to expend material amounts of resources to remediate the consequences of any such disposal in the future. Further, under environmental laws, an owner or lessee of real estate may be liable for the costs of removal or remediation of certain hazardous or toxic substances located on, or in, or emanating from such property, as well as related costs of investigation and property damage. Such laws often impose liability without regard to whether the owner or lessee knew of, or was responsible for, the presence of such hazardous or toxic substances. There can be no assurance that our acquired or leased locations have been operated in compliance with environmental laws and regulations or that future uses or conditions will not result in the imposition of liability upon us under such laws or expose us to third-party actions, such as tort suits. We continue to address environmental conditions under terms of consent orders negotiated with the applicable environmental authorities or otherwise with respect to certain sites. We routinely review and evaluate sites that may require remediation and monitoring and determine our estimated costs based on various estimates and assumptions. For a discussion of our accruals with respect to environmental liabilities and additional discussion regarding environmental matters, refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Refer also to the risk factors set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding environmental matters.

Our nuclear garment decontamination facilities in the U.S. are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or in certain cases, by the applicable state agency, and are subject to regulation by federal, state and local authorities. We also have nuclear garment decontamination facilities in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. These facilities are licensed and regulated by the respective country’s applicable federal agency. In the past, scrutiny and regulation of nuclear facilities and related services have resulted in the suspension of operations at certain nuclear facilities served by us or disruptions in our ability to service such facilities. There can be no assurance that such scrutiny and regulation will not lead to the shut-down of such facilities or otherwise cause material disruptions in our garment decontamination business.

Additional information regarding our environmental, health, and safety initiatives is available in UniFirst’s Impact Report, which can be found on our website at www.unifirst.com/sustainability-report. Such report is not deemed to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or the documents incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

AVAILABLE INFORMATION

We make available free of charge our Proxy Statement, Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, including exhibits and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). These reports are available on our website atwww.unifirst.com. In addition, you may request a copy of our filings, excluding exhibits, by contacting our Investor Relations group at (978) 658-8888 or at UniFirst Corporation, 68 Jonspin Road, Wilmington, MA 01887. Information included on our website is not deemed to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or the documents incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

In addition, the SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, and you may access any materials we file with the SEC through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.