Q1 2024 UniFirst Corp Earnings Call
Presentation
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the UniFirst Corporation first quarter earnings call. And during the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session time. If you have a question, please press the one followed by the four in your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steven Sintros, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please?
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. Scott will be on a 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 events 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 10K and 10Q 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 or 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, workwear facility service for First Aid and Safety, clean room, our 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 team. 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 cost expended during the quarter related to key initiatives.
As a reminder, we have been expanding 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 activity surrounding the deployment of our CRM largely winding down. We continue to expend dollars related to our ERP project.
However, as we enter 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 March. Part of this outcome was driven by the addition of a top three account in our Core Laundry Operations.
We continue to sell prospects and the value that UniFirst can bring their businesses our approach as a consultative one, as I mentioned, we focus on creating the right programs with the right products and products for our customers. Conversely, we did experience more headwinds against our top line performance as the quarter progressed in the areas of pricing, 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 24 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 become 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 work to optimize the use of our new CRM, including leveraging some of claims 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 re-signing long term customer relationships. This shows the confidence that cleans customer base hasn't 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 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 in contributions in the area of environmental, social and governance. The nature of and of the industry in rental model has always allowed us and the company to do our part enhancing the economy's economic environmental footprint, given our role as a natural recycler as well as the better utilization of resources, an operation like ours enables as an example of our efforts.
During the quarter, we engaged a company that is going to convert the remainder of our operating plants in our core laundries 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 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. And 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%.
And our financial results in the first quarters 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. Effect of these items on the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and 2023, combined 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 $0.4, 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 be solved. 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 solid 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 prior year or $33.8 million, and the segment's EBITDA margin increased to 14% from 12.2%. 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 have 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 Garments segment, which delivers specialized nuclear decontamination and cleanroom products and services increased slightly to $44.7 million from $44.1 million in prior year or 1.3%. This increase was primarily due to growth in our clean room operations. Segment's operating margin increased 27.1% from 23.1%, primarily the result of lower merchandise costs in our clean room operations.
As we 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 prior year or 22.4%. However, the segment had an operating loss of $1.1 million during the quarter.
These results continued to reflect the investments we have 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 prior year were 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.
Question and Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. If you would like to register a question, please press the one followed by the four on your telephone. You will hear a three-tone prompt to acknowledge your request. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw your registration, please press the one followed by the three. One moment please, for our first question.
Our first question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik with Barclays. Please seem to your question.
Hi, good morning. This is Ronan Kennedy on for Manolo. Happy New Year and thank you for taking my question.
Good morning.
You guys please 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 take less of a tailwind from where what levels and if that is specifically the driver of guiding to the lower half of the GAAP guidance was what we would anticipate based on what Plaid played out in the latter stages of the quarter. Just if you could unpack that in further detail?
Sure. Assure grown in this is that is the driver of us tweaking down the guidance or making the commentary that the lower end is more likely.
Yes. Over the back half of the quarter, we certainly started seeing some more price sensitivity. And again, this is all compared to what our what our expectations were kind of coming in from not somewhat not surprising me may be based on some moderating cost energy and so on that that we are seeing, but that was a little bit off of what we had projected kind of coming into the year.
And, you know, any of any of those type of changes kind of early on in the year, have more of an impact as sort of you think about it over the over the course of the year. With respect to customer retention, we had mentioned over the back half of last year that things were trending a little bit lower. We saw some of that over the quarter, a couple of strategic losses, I'll call them during the quarter that ended up being recognized.
And again, those kinds of things have more of an impact as you as you work them out over the over the full year with respect to the adds versus reductions, we've been talking about the environment been being relatively stable and I would still categorize it as such. But certainly, compared to a year ago, and even somewhat compared to maybe the back half of last year, we're seeing a little less in the way of where additions. I wouldn't say net-net, it's turned negative in a large way, but a little off of our expectation for the 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 liking and how that's incorporated within the guidance for the remainder of the year.
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 a broader pickup in where reductions at our customers, we don't really build that. And that being said, I'm not sure that we're hearing loud from our customers that that's imminent. And I think people are taking a little bit more of a cautious tone out there with respect to hiring, but we're not also not hearing broad calls for reductions.
I mean one of the things that makes U.S. reporting this time of year somewhat unique is that a lot of those conversations with customers start to become clear sort of after the holidays as they kind of 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 costs.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Ron.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Andy Wittmann with Baird. Steve, two questions.
Great. Good morning.
Thanks for taking my questions, guys. I guess I first started, but first thing I wanted to do is drill a little bit more on the customer retention, Steve, and I guess in prior quarters, you've talked a little bit about how it might be moderating somewhat. I guess the question is, what do you attribute the customer retention, is that customers that are closing doors closing up shop? Is it is it on the pricing initiatives that you're trying to get some going other ways?
You heard the term, I think used the term here, a strategic losses, I guess means that customers that know you tried to get the price and it wasn't going and you're okay with not okay with losing, but okay with Yahoo because it wasn't a profitable account. I mean maybe you could just elaborate on the retainer and factors in more detail.
Sure. It's a little bit all of the above and beyond a couple of those strategic accounts. I think they were an instance where sort of at the end of the day we decided not to move forward.
I do I should have said in my answer to the first question, I do believe that the pricing environment is a factor, at least in the way we measure retention. When we measure retention, we're looking at sort of the all in impact of these accounts over the last 12 months.
And I do think that through the strong period of inflation that we all were trying to get more from customers, not saying that's necessarily the reason that you lose an account. But if you do lose that in account, it may be priced higher than it otherwise would have been a year or so ago if that makes sense. And so I do think some of the way our numbers are falling out are an impact of pricing and it's sort of another I've talked about it before.
When you sell a new account and you lose an account, those accounts could be of similar profile. Often they don't have the same price. An account you've had for longer likely has higher pricing, particularly in this period that we've been going through with inflation. So I think price has been somewhat a part of it and look not to overestimated the competitive environment is always part of it, but I'm not sure that there's a significant difference in that regard.
I think it's a little bit more of the pricing environment and people working through inflation more likely, maybe to say, hey, I want to go out to bid or put my account up to bid, and that's had some impact. We have seen some customers not being able to pay by terms and some things like that. I think we've seen an increase in most of the metrics we track as part of our retention. So hopefully that helps a little bit.
Appreciate the color on that. I guess next, I wanted to just dig into merchandise costs. I feel like I've been asking this one almost every quarter, but we're going to ask it again this quarter, I guess at some given that compares on merchandise costs now have been a headwind to your margins for a while.
I guess it seems reasonable to be thinking about merchandise costs, maybe flipping positive in the few upcoming quarters. It wasn't this quarter, but maybe can you can you quantify the impact of merchandise costs? What were you for year here? Like what when do you think that could flip positively?
Yes, I can do that on. 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? And obviously, that headwind was greatly reduced from what we have 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 now 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 relative or merchandise.
Dom flat. 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 because that's helpful other than these goods.
Yes, I was going to add one thing there, and it's not 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, it is an item that is cause will cause a headwind over this course of this year until it kind of falls off and be in is amortized kind of next year at this time. So that's a factor in there as well.
Yes, that makes sense. Okay. Just a couple of technical questions here. I guess just was there any change is there any change to the amount of key initiatives, costs or some of the other factors this quarter in the in your press release talking about your outlook, you didn't have the same level of detail as you did last quarter when you gave your initial guidance. So I was just wondering if there's any changes pending the other assumptions here on maybe the margin rates, key initiative costs, other things that you detailed previously, but were not reiterated specifically 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 on my model at this point in time, it continues to be about $16 million worth of initiative costs tax rate for the year continues to be 25%.
On largely, we're maintaining the expectations from the guidance as it relates to the lower half of the range. The commentary there yet 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 NAM know that we'll do that. You know that the revenue impact would pressure my margins. But at this point in time on 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% NAM. So our expectation is that that's going to be able to offset maybe some of the pressure related to the revenue trend?
This is lots loss of Ralph. I'm going to 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 they were like interest on the cash taxes that was like implicit in that that caused you to recognize that as income this quarter. Is that what does this shareowner? I'm split following at Utah.
No, that's exactly right. There was an ongoing tax dispute and as opposed as a result of the favorable resolution, we received certain interest related to some related to that. So we were able to recognize that in the quarter has 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 now it's, you know, interestingly enough it was related to Mexico, but unrelated to that one, we disclosed in the filing. This was a separate one from I don't know three, three or four years ago, maybe more that was able to be resolved and therefore we were able to recoup the interest. But the other one is still out there and sort of pending.
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 to. So that was that was our experience in the quarter.
I think you have a great day.
Thanks, Andy.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Josh Chan with UBS. Please proceed with your question.
Sagamore's even chain have in your opinion, and I was wondering by 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 accounts, the large accounts that you're winning, kind of, what's causing the loss of losses? And what's causing you to win the large accounts specifically?
Yes, great question. I mean, at the end of the day, I sort of alluded to is we sell our value proposition, go into accounts, sell them on the right program for the for that with the right products for those customers we sell on our process, we sell in 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 a local lack of execution by the route driver if we've had more turnover and sometimes it can be that, you know, an account is going out to bid and they get a very competitive offer.
And we struggled 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 to 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 sense. Thanks, Stephen. And then I guess if I can follow up on the specialty side 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 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 from not to necessarily replicate some of the strength in the first quarter.
There was some sort of one-time things in the first quarter that sort of buoyed a bit. And again, that segments 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 color and the rest of the year.
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Tim Mulrooney with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning. This is Luke Hatton on for Tim. Thanks for taking the questions today and talk about your first aid business. Had a nice start to the fiscal year. It performed well for several consecutive quarters now, but should we still expect to see that business inflecting to 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 breakeven. 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 our 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 to profitability but for the most part, our guidance for the full year has us in that sort of treading water around breakeven.
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 your 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 outsized strength or weakness as you're looking at them?
Correct.
No, I wouldn't say so. I think that, you know, 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 sectors. 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.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
I shared I just want to confirm something that I think is pretty clear, but I just wanted to get permanent in the 24 guide on when would you point to the lower half of the range. I think that's just for revenues and not for EPS, I think for 2014, EPS just 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 24? You've kind of given the first quarter benefit and you of 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 out?
Yes. So on, yes, actually, can you ask first part of the question again, I'm sorry, I can't help, but it's a multi-part question.
Sorry. So the first one, I just wanted to confirm what you point to that, the lower half of the range for the guide. I think that's just a comment for revenues and not a comment for EPSI. In other words, I think when you say on lower half, you're talking about revenues and for EPS, you're still point you to the whole range?
Yes. Yes, I'm sorry about that.
I know that's correct. The comments about lower half is just top line related. We are still we are still pointing to the full range from a from an EPS perspective on 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, on my expectation is that the interest income all realize sort of Q1's run rate exclusive of that $2.1 million So about $1 million worth of interest income per quarter.
And Andrew I think the second part of your question, which was alluding to the confidence in sort of the back the rest of the year's kind of margin outlook, given everything that we've been saying here is the one comment I'd make to that. Shayne alluded to it to some extent with respect to what we're seeing on merchandise.
But I think in general, when you look across all of our costs, unlike the last couple of years where there was a lot more deviation in increases we were seeing across our cost base. We are seeing more stabilization there, right. Obviously, merchandise is a big piece of that from a labor perspective on, you know, it's consistent with what you read out there.
It's still a challenging labor environment, but certainly not as challenging in terms of staffing pressure on wages and so on. It doesn't mean those costs have retreated, but the confidence in them over the next few quarters is higher than in past couple of years when we were going through a lot of a lot of inflation. And the energy we Shane talked about as well as a as a helpful item that we've modeled and Perfect. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. As a reminder, to register for a question, press the one four. Our next question comes from the line of Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research. Please proceed with your question.
Thank you. Good morning. Steve, you've talked about maybe what's happening in terms of add-stops and maybe some customers extending payments but now if you look at just overall at your customers, how would you assess the health of those customers? How do you feel about their ongoing viability, 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 how we look at that. So no, I think I think stable in that 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, essentially, 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 producers surcharges still in effect or is that part and maybe some of the pricing dynamics that you've talked?
So this is Steve. We did. 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. And I do think that lower energy price does 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 increase in 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 one last question.
I know you've been inquisitive or at least last year and you've looked at acquisitions and 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 from now aside from clean, which was a larger deal, 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 them test the waters. And so and I think that really continues. I think 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 makes sense in our in either strategic geographies for us or that we feel that 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.
Operator
Thank you. As a reminder, to register for a question one four. There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back to you, Greg.
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.
Operator
That does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines.
