Consolidated revenues for the quarter were $446.9 million, down 4% from our fiscal 2020 first quarter.
Fully diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $2.20, which exceeded our expectations as many variable expenses trended lower than our projections.
Overall, the outlook continues to be difficult to forecast.
As Steve mentioned, in our first quarter of 2021, consolidated revenues were $446.9 million, down 4% from $465.4 million a year ago and consolidated operating income decreased to $56 million from $60.1 million or 6.7%.
Net income for the quarter decreased to $41.9 million or $2.20 per diluted share from $48.2 million or $2.52 per diluted share.
Our effective tax rate in the quarter was 25% compared to 22.1% in the prior year which unfavorably impacted the earnings per share comparison.
Our Core Laundry operations revenues for the quarter were $393.2 million, down 5.6% from the first quarter of 2020.
Core Laundry organic growth, which adjusts for the estimated effect of acquisitions as well as fluctuations in the Canadian dollar, was also 5.6%.
Core Laundry operating margin decreased to 12.4% for the quarter or $48.9 million from 12.9% in prior year or $53.8 million.
Energy costs decreased to 3.6% of revenues in the first quarter of 2021, down from 3.9% in prior year.
Revenues from our Specialty Garments segment, which delivers specialized nuclear decontamination and cleanroom products and services, increased to $38.1 million from $33.4 million in the prior year or 14.2%.
Segment's operating margin increased to 18.8% from 14.6%.
Our First Aid segment's revenues were $15.5 million compared to $15.7 million in prior year.
However, the segment's operating profit was nominal compared to $1.4 million in the comparable period of 2020.
We continue to maintain a solid balance sheet and financial position with no long-term debt and cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaling $473 million at the end of our first quarter of fiscal 2021.
For the first three months of fiscal 2021, capital expenditures totaled $41.8 million as we continue to invest in our future with new facility additions, expansions, updates and automation systems that will help us meet our long-term strategic objectives.
Our quarterly capex spend was elevated primarily due to the purchase of a building in New York City for $14.1 million, which will provide us a strategic location for a future service center.
During the quarter, we capitalized $2.9 million related to our ongoing CRM project which consisted of license fees, third-party consulting costs and capitalized internal labor costs.
As of the end of our quarter, we had capitalized a total of $25.5 million related to the CRM project.
Eventually, the depreciation of the system combined with additional hardware we will install to support our new capabilities, like mobile handheld devices for our route drivers, will ramp to an estimated $6 million to $7 million of additional depreciation expense per year.
During the first quarter of fiscal 2021, we repurchased 41,000 common shares for a total of $7.2 million under our previously announced stock repurchase program.
As of November 28, 2021 [Phonetic], the Company had repurchased a total of 355,917 common shares for $59.5 million under the program.
Throughout December, the weekly rental billings in our Core Laundry operations have been trending down compared to the comparable weeks in prior year by approximately 3.5% to 4%.

Summary:
Consolidated revenues for the quarter were $446.9 million, down 4% from our fiscal 2020 first quarter.
Fully diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $2.20, which exceeded our expectations as many variable expenses trended lower than our projections.
Overall, the outlook continues to be difficult to forecast.
Net income for the quarter decreased to $41.9 million or $2.20 per diluted share from $48.2 million or $2.52 per diluted share.
We continue to maintain a solid balance sheet and financial position with no long-term debt and cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaling $473 million at the end of our first quarter of fiscal 2021.