The Board of Directors of Superior Uniform Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGC) today declared a quarterly dividend of $.135 per share, payable May 29, 2012, to shareholders of record May 16, 2012.

ABOUT SUPERIOR UNIFORM GROUP, INC.

Superior Uniform Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGC), established in 1920, is one of America's foremost providers of fine uniforms and image apparel. Headquartered in Seminole, Fla., Superior Uniform Group manages award-winning uniform apparel programs for major corporations nationwide. Leaders in innovative uniform program design, global manufacturing and state-of-the-art distribution, Superior Uniform Group helps companies achieve a professional appearance and communicate their brands -- particularly those in the healthcare, hospitality, food service, retail and private security industries. The company's commitment to service, technology, quality and value-added benefits, as well as its financial strength and resources, support customers' diverse needs while embracing a "Customer 1st, Every Time!" philosophy and culture. Superior Uniform Group is the parent company to The Office Gurus® and everyBODY media™. For more information, call (800) 727-8643 or visit www.superioruniformgroup.com.

Scott Farmer, CEO of uniform maker Cintas, told CNBC Wednesday the company has had a resurgence in its core business as more companies hire more people who need uniforms.

The company reported a nearly 30 percent increase in third-quarter profits, surpassing expectations and prompting shares to rise to a new high Tuesday. It raised its guidance for the current quarter.

"What we're seeing is pretty widespread" growth, both in the service economy and in manufacturing, he said. "But I would call it moderate, at this point. It's not something that...at this point I would say is robust growth. But the mood out there has changed and we're taking advantage of it."

Cintas makes company uniforms and also entrance mats, fire production products and first aid supplies.

There's also been growth in the energy sector, he said. "The oil and gas business has been very solid. There's a lot of oil and gas exploration right now with the Marcellus shale region, he Canadian oll sands and then the traditional oil belt."

CINCINNATI, Mar 20, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Cintas Corporation CTAS +1.26% today reported results for its third quarter ended February 29, 2012. Revenue for the third quarter was $1.01 billion, representing a 7.9% increase compared to last year's third quarter. Organic growth, which adjusts for the impact of acquisitions and the impact of one additional workday compared to last year's third quarter, was 5.9%. Recycled paper prices, which declined rapidly during our second fiscal quarter, remained at a relatively low level and negatively impacted revenue growth in our Document Management segment. This decline in recycled paper prices negatively impacted consolidated revenue growth by $5.6 million, or 0.6%, compared to last year's third quarter.

The Company's third quarter operating income of $137.5 million was a 26.3% improvement as compared to last year's third quarter. Net income increased 28.7% to $76.0 million as compared to $59.1 million in last year's third quarter. Earnings per diluted share for the third quarter were $0.58, a 41.5% increase over the $0.41 earnings per diluted share reported in last year's third quarter. This was the fifth consecutive quarter that operating income and earnings per diluted share grew in excess of 25%.

Scott D. Farmer, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Our results continue to reflect our focus on selling value and growing our business profitably. This high quality growth led us to our third quarter operating margin of 13.6%, which is a nice improvement over both last year's third quarter operating margin of 11.6% and our second quarter operating margin of 13.0%. Our Rental Uniforms and Ancillary Products operating segment, which accounts for 71% of our consolidated revenue, had an operating margin of 15.6%, an improvement over the 12.9% operating margin from last year's third quarter."

Mr. Farmer added, "We continue to be pleased with the performance of all of our businesses and the execution of our game plan by our very talented team of employees, who we call partners."

The effective tax rates for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2011 were 37.0% and 38.9%, respectively. We expect the effective tax rate for the entire 2012 fiscal year to be approximately 37.0%, as compared to 37.1% for the entire 2011 fiscal year.

Companies are renting more uniforms as hiring in industries such as manufacturing and food service outpaces the U.S. economy's best six-month streak of job growth since 2006.

Hiring for uniform-clad workers grew 59,000 last month following a 96,000 gain in January, according to an index created by Robert W. Baird & Co., a Milwaukee-based financial- services company. Payrolls at these businesses rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier to 30.7 million, the highest since March 2009 and more than the 1.6 percent gain for all employees on nonfarm payrolls, the Baird index and Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.

"What we're seeing now is a pretty good resurgence in hiring in uniform-wearing industries," said Andrew Wittmann, an analyst with Baird in Milwaukee. Gains in these types of jobs have exceeded the total market for more than a year, even amid the broader improvement, he said.

The unemployment rate held at 8.3 percent in February, a three-year low, while the economy added 734,000 jobs between December and February, the biggest three-month increase since May 2010, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

G&K Services of Minnetonka, a provider of work uniforms, said Tuesday that it has completed its previously disclosed actions to discontinue its participation in the Central States Pension Plan at two facilities.

The company did not disclose which facilities were involved. The company said it also closed two other underperforming branch facilities that also participated in the plan.

G&K continues to participate in the plan at two other locations, but plans to exit those too by the end of the year, said Jeff Huebschen, the company's director of investor relations. He said the moves affect fewer than 200 of its 7,500 employees across the nation.

The company wanted to exit the plan because the increases in company contributions each year were unsustainable. "We really wanted to get out of this so it wouldn't be a huge liability for the company," Huebschen said. "We were successful in a few locations negotiating with the unions to exit the plan."

The Central States Pension Plan is a multistate plan, covering G&K's Teamsters truck drivers. Most of the drivers participating in the plan are in Minnesota, Huebschen said. As a result of the actions, the company expects that its fiscal year 2012 third quarter results will include a pre-tax charge to earnings between $23 million to $25 million. These charges include the estimated discounted value of the total withdrawal liability, incentives for union participants, strike preparation costs, costs associated with closing two branch locations and other costs.

WICHITA, Kan. — Linen King, an Oklahoma-based textile rental services company that provides commercial laundry services to the healthcare and hospitality industries, recently acquired Via Christi Hospital's Laundry, an off-premise laundry facility here.

With approximately 20,000 square feet in space, the facility has the immediate capacity to process more than 15 million pounds of laundry each year. This is Linen King's fifth dedicated healthcare facility in the south-central United States.

The new facility will allow the company to streamline operations and service its Wichita area customers, while freeing up capacity in the company's Oklahoma facility.

Swisher Hygiene Inc. has acquired Savoy Linen Services Inc.

Connecticut-based Savoy provides linen rental and laundry services primarily to food-service customers in the southern New England and greater New York City markets. The company was founded in 1924.

Paul Vazzano, owner of Savoy, will join Swisher Hygiene's linen-services business.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

"The acquisition of Savoy is a continuation of our efforts to build upon our existing presence in the linen and dust control markets and expand throughout North America," says Steven Berrard, chief executive of Swisher.

"As we have accomplished our goal of building out a chemical footprint that provides nationwide service coverage, we now are able to shift the focus of our acquisition efforts to our other product offerings," Berrard adds. "Our acquisition focus will be more concentrated in expanding our linen and other complementary offerings to further serve our existing and potential new customers."

Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSX:GIL)(NYSE:GIL) today announced its financial results for the first quarter of its 2012 fiscal year, and also reconfirmed its prior sales and earnings guidance for the full fiscal year. In the first quarter, the Company began to manage and report its business as two operating segments, which serve different markets and customers. The Printwear business supplies activewear, fleece and sport shirts to the screenprint market. The Branded Apparel business supplies socks, underwear and activewear to retail customers. Quarterly and annual segmented sales and operating income for fiscal 2011 are also included as part of this press release.

First Quarter Results

Gildan today reported a net loss of U.S. $46.1 million or U.S. $0.38 per share on a diluted basis for its first fiscal quarter ended January 1, 2012, compared with net earnings of U.S. $35.9 million or U.S. $0.29 per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2011. The Company had projected a loss of approximately U.S. $0.40 per share for the first quarter, when it initiated its fiscal 2012 sales and earnings guidance on December 1, 2011. Net selling prices for Printwear were more favourable than projected, due to lower than projected promotional discounting in the U.S. wholesale distributor channel in the month of December.

The decline in the Company's results compared to last year was due to the impact of higher cotton costs, inventory destocking by U.S. wholesale distributors, the impact of a special distributor inventory devaluation discount in the quarter and the cost of the manufacturing shutdown in December in order to manage inventory levels. These unfavourable variances compared to last year were partially offset by the benefit of selling price increases to U.S. retail customers which were primarily implemented in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, improved sock manufacturing efficiencies and the accretive impact of the acquisition of Gold Toe Moretz.

Counselor Top 40 supplier American Apparel (asi/35297) announced that it increased its sales in January by 14% to reach $41.4 million in the month. For the same period, comparable store sales increased an estimated 15%, which included a 39% rise in online sales. Also for the month of January, when compared to January 2011, American Apparel said its wholesale division – which promotional products are a part of for the company – grew sales by an estimated 21%.

Dov Charney, chairman and CEO of American Apparel, pointed specifically to the success of the company's imprintables division in his public statement regarding the company's January sales. "I am very encouraged by the sales performance of the company," Charney said. "Since September 2011, we have had positive retail same store sales, and for the months of November, December and January, our imprintable wholesale sales levels have been running at record levels beyond the previous highs set for those months in 2008."

Charney said the sales results over the past few months should help his company in other areas, as well. "Higher sales running through our three sales channels – retail, online, and imprintable wholesale – allow for us to improve operational efficiencies at the factory, as well as leverage corporate costs, thereby improving prospects for our long term profitability," he said.

American Apparel ranks as the 14th-largest supplier in the ad specialty market, with more than $88 million in annual North American ad specialty sales. The company also operates 249 retail stores in 20 countries.

HanesBrands today announced that it will host a live Internet audio webcast of its 2011 fourth-quarter investor conference call at 4:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2011.

At the close of regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange that day, Hanes will issue a press release summarizing the results of the quarter and year ended Dec. 31, 2011.

The live Internet broadcast may be accessed on the home page of the Hanes corporate website, www.hanesbrands.com . The call is expected to conclude by 5:30 p.m. EST.

Replays of the conference call will be available via the Internet and telephone. An archived replay of the conference call audio webcast will be available in the investors section of the Hanes corporate website. The telephone playback will be available from midnight EST Feb. 15, 2012, through midnight EST Feb. 22, 2012. The replay will be available by calling toll-free (855) 859-2056, or by toll call at (404) 537-3406. The replay pass code is 50778351.