Michael Benstock, chief executive officer, commented: "We are pleased to report an increase of 6.0 percent in our net sales. Gross margins for our uniform and related products business continued to be pressured in the first quarter of 2012, consistent with our expectations. As we indicated in our 2011 year-end earnings release, we ensured that we were in a position to take care of our customers by investing heavily in our raw material inventories during the cotton crisis of 2011. As a result, we were able to provide our products to our customers throughout the period of the shortages and were able to improve our market share in the process. However, as we work through the higher priced inventory we had built up during 2011, our gross margins were negatively impacted and we expect that they will continue to be pressured into the third quarter of 2012. We continued to see the benefits in this approach as we increased our market position in the first quarter of 2012."