Company executives said Counselor Top 40 distributor Cintas (asi/162167) kicked off its new fiscal year with a win.

The publicly traded corporation, which sells promo but is best known for its uniform rental and facility services, reported Wednesday, Sept. 25, that sales and earnings both increased on an annual basis in the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year.

Revenue for the three-month period, which concluded Aug. 31, jumped 6.8% year over year to $2.5 billion. Sales were up nearly 6% in the uniform rental/facility services division, hitting about $1.93 billion.

Todd M. Schneider, Cintas (asi/162167)

Revenue from combined “other” business channels jumped 10% to $567.75 million. The firm didn’t break out promotional product sales in particular.

Meanwhile, Cintas generated Q1 net income of $452 million, a 17.4% increase compared to the same quarter the prior year. That performance translated to $1.12 in basic earnings per share and $1.10 in diluted EPS – year-over-year rises of 19.1% and 18.3%, respectively.

Other income measurements also accelerated.

Operating income leapt 12.1% on an annual basis in the quarter, tallying $561 million. Quarterly gross margin was $1.25 billion compared to $1.14 billion in last year’s first quarter, an increase of 9.7%. Cash flow from operating activities rose from $336.9 million in fiscal year 2024’s Q1 to $466.7 million in Cintas’ first quarter of fiscal year 2025.

“Our results reflect the strength and breadth of Cintas’ value proposition for businesses of all types and stellar execution by our employee-partners,” said CEO Todd M. Schneider.

So good is Cintas feeling about its position that it upped its forecast for fiscal 2025 sales and earnings.

“We are raising our annual revenue expectations from a range of $10.16 billion to $10.31 billion to a range of $10.22 billion to $10.32 billion and increasing our diluted EPS guidance from a range of $4.06 to $4.19 to a range of $4.17 to $4.25,” Schneider shared.

Cintas has been on a hot streak, consistently generating gains in sales and earnings. The firm increased total company sales 8.9% on an annual basis to $9.6 billion during its 2024 fiscal year, which ended May 31. Net income increased 16.6% year over year to about $1.57 billion.

Based on estimated North American promotional product revenue of $218.6 million, Cintas ranked 13^th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry.