SAFE HARBOR FOR FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and any documents incorporated by reference may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward looking statements contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and any documents incorporated by reference are subject to the safe harbor created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements may be identified by words such as "estimates," "anticipates," "projects," "plans," "expects," "intends," "believes," "seeks," "could," "should," "may," "will," or the negative versions thereof, and similar expressions and by the context in which they are used. Such forward looking statements are based upon our current expectations and speak only as of the date made. Such statements are highly dependent upon a variety of risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such forward looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, uncertainties regarding our ability to consummate and successfully integrate acquired businesses, uncertainties regarding any existing or newly-discovered expenses and liabilities related to environmental compliance and remediation, our ability to compete successfully without any significant degradation in our margin rates, seasonal fluctuations in business levels, uncertainties regarding the price levels of natural gas, electricity, fuel and labor, the impact of negative economic conditions on our customers and such customers' workforce, the level and duration of workforce reductions by our customers, the continuing increase in domestic healthcare costs, demand and prices for our products and services, additional professional and internal costs necessary for compliance with recent and proposed future changes in Securities and Exchange Commission (including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), New York Stock Exchange and accounting rules, strikes and unemployment levels, our efforts to evaluate and potentially reduce internal costs, economic and other developments associated with the war on terrorism and its impact on the economy, general economic conditions and other factors described under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended August 30, 2008, as updated in Part II, Item 1A of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which such statements are made.

Business Overview

UniFirst Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, hereunder referred to as "we", "our", the "Company", or "UniFirst", is one of the largest providers of workplace uniforms and protective clothing in the United States. We design, manufacture, personalize, rent, clean, deliver, and sell a wide range of uniforms and protective clothing, including shirts, pants, jackets, coveralls, lab coats, smocks, aprons and specialized protective wear, such as flame resistant and high visibility garments. We also rent industrial wiping products, floor mats, facility service products and other non-garment items, and provide first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies, to a variety of manufacturers, retailers and service companies.

We serve businesses of all sizes in numerous industry categories. Typical customers include automobile service centers and dealers, delivery services, food and general merchandise retailers, food processors and service operations, light manufacturers, maintenance facilities, restaurants, service companies, soft and durable goods wholesalers, transportation companies, and others who require employee clothing for image, identification, protection or utility purposes. We also provide our customers with restroom supplies, including air fresheners, paper products and hand soaps.

At certain specialized facilities, we also decontaminate and clean work clothes that may have been exposed to radioactive materials and service special clean room protective wear. Typical customers for these specialized services include government agencies, research and development laboratories, high technology companies and utilities operating nuclear reactors.

We continue to expand into additional geographic markets through acquisitions and organic growth. We currently service over 200,000 customer locations in the United States, Canada and Europe from over 200 customer service, distribution and manufacturing facilities.

As discussed and described in Note 12 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, we have five reporting segments: US and Canadian Rental and Cleaning, Manufacturing ("MFG"), Corporate, Specialty Garments Rental and Cleaning ("Specialty Garments") and First Aid. We refer to the laundry locations of the US and Canadian Rental and Cleaning reporting segment as "industrial laundries" or "industrial laundry locations", and to the US and Canadian Rental and Cleaning, MFG, and Corporate reporting segments combined as our "core laundry operations."

Results of Operations

The amounts of revenues and certain expense items for the thirteen and thirty-nine weeks ended May 30, 2009 and the thirteen and forty weeks ended May 31, 2008, and the percentage changes in revenues and certain expense items as a percentage of total revenues between these periods, are presented in the following table. Operating costs presented in the table below include merchandise costs related to the amortization of rental merchandise in service and direct sales as well as labor and other production, service and delivery costs associated with operating our industrial laundries, Specialty Garments facilities, First Aid locations and our distribution center. Selling and administrative costs include costs related to our sales and marketing functions, as well as general and administrative costs associated with our corporate offices and operating locations including information systems, engineering, materials management, manufacturing planning, finance, budgeting, and human resources.

                              Thirteen            Thirteen                      Thirty-nine            Forty
                             weeks ended         weeks ended                    weeks ended         weeks ended
(in thousands, except      May 30,   % of      May 31,   % of      %          May 30,   % of      May 31,   % of      %
percentages)                2009     Rev.       2008     Rev.    Change        2009     Rev.       2008     Rev.    Change

Revenues                 $ 252,105   100.0 % $ 254,617   100.0 %   -1.0 %   $ 771,944   100.0 % $ 772,165   100.0 %    0.0 %

Costs and expenses:
Operating costs (1)        148,597    58.9     157,169    61.7     -5.5       464,632    60.2     480,797    62.3     -3.4
Selling and
administrative expenses
(1)                         52,152    20.7      54,458    21.4     -4.2       159,752    20.7     164,501    21.3     -2.9
Depreciation and                                                                                                       6.5
amortization                14,641     5.8      13,192     5.2     11.0        42,683     5.5      40,094     5.2
                           215,390    85.4     224,819    88.3     -4.2       667,067    86.4     685,392    88.8     -2.7

Income from operations      36,715    14.6      29,798    11.7     23.2       104,877    13.6      86,773    11.2     20.9

Other expense (income)         996     0.4       2,000     0.8    -50.2         5,989     0.8       7,341     1.0    -18.4

Income before income                                                                                                  24.5
taxes                       35,719    14.2      27,798    10.9     28.5        98,888    12.8      79,432    10.3
Provision for income                                                                                                  30.3
taxes                       14,030     5.6      10,858     4.2     29.2        40,057     5.2      30,737     4.0

Net income               $  21,689     8.6 % $  16,940     6.7 %   28.0 %   $  58,831     7.6 % $  48,695     6.3 %   20.8 %

(1) Exclusive of depreciation on our property and equipment and amortization of our intangible assets.

The current worldwide economic weakness may negatively impact our revenues for the balance of fiscal 2009 and into fiscal 2010 due to the impact on spending plans and employment levels of our customers and sales prospects. Since the beginning of the fiscal 2009 year, U.S. unemployment rates have continued to increase, which is impacting our broad customer base. Lost accounts have increased, and may continue to increase, as we are seeing a larger number of accounts going out of business or in financial distress.

General

We derive our revenues through the design, manufacture, personalization, rental, cleaning, delivering, and selling of a wide range of uniforms and protective clothing, including shirts, pants, jackets, coveralls, lab coats, smocks, aprons and specialized protective wear, such as flame resistant and high visibility garments. We also rent industrial wiping products, floor mats, facility service products, other non-garment items, and provide first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies, to a variety of manufacturers, retailers and service companies.

Thirteen weeks ended May 30, 2009 compared with thirteen weeks ended May 31, 2008