AMCON 1Q Sales Rise

AMCON 1Q Sales Rise

OMAHA, Neb.--AMCON Distributing Co. (AMEX:DIT), a wholesale distributor ofconsumer products including organic produce and natural products, reportedincreased sales for its first quarter ended Dec. 31, 1999. Net sales reached arecord $112 million, up 36-percent from $82.3 million. Net income for thequarter fell, however, to $1 million or $.35 per share from $1.4 million or $.51per share earned the year prior. The share amounts reported for the recentlyended first quarter have been reinstated for retroactive treatment of the10-percent stock dividend paid on Feb. 8, 2000.

"Excluding the one-time benefit from the cigarette increase last year,net income for the first quarter ended December 1999 represented a $.28 pershare increase over the first quarter the year prior," said William Wright,chairman. "Much of the sales growth was attributable to our wholesaledistribution business, which saw last year's cigarette price increases accountfor approximately $14.8 million of the increase in sales." He added thatAMCON's retail health food business, which was acquired in the third and fourthquarters of fiscal 1999, contributed $8.3 million in new sales and $3.7 millionin additional gross profit.