AMCON Distributing Company Reports Record Fully Diluted Earnings Per Share of $16.61 Per Share for the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2009

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CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
AMCON Distributing Company ("AMCON") (AMEX:DIT), an Omaha, Nebraska based
consumer products company is pleased to announce record fully diluted earnings
per share of $16.61 on net income available to common stockholders of $12.4
million for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009.

"Our management team has once again delivered record results despite the
recessionary environment. Throughout the year we maintained a conservative
posture and took advantage of opportunities when they were presented," said
Christopher H. Atayan, AMCON`s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Atayan
continued, "We believe that if we continue to add value for our customers, our
shareholders will benefit. The results this year are a testament to the high
degree of collaboration that we have with our customers."

"As previously announced, our Board of Directors recently raised our quarterly
dividend to $0.18 per share, an increase of 80 percent, and also authorized a
share repurchase program of up to 50,000 shares to benefit our shareholders. Our
recently announced acquisition in Northwest Arkansas is in furtherance of our
long-term strategy which is to both grow our geographic base and increase
penetration in existing markets. Integrating this acquisition will be a high
priority for our management team in the coming quarters. I am also pleased to
announce that our retail health food division will open a new store in Tulsa in
calendar 2010. We will continue to look for acquisition opportunities in both
our business segments," noted Atayan.

Each of AMCON`s business segments reported excellent years. The wholesale
distribution segment reported revenues of $243.3 million and operating income
before depreciation of $5.6 million for the fourth fiscal quarter and revenues
and operating income before depreciation of $871.3 million and $18.4 million,
respectively, for all of fiscal 2009. The retail health food segment reported
revenues of $9.0 million and operating income before depreciation of $1.0
million for the fourth fiscal quarter and annual revenue of $36.6 million and
operating income before depreciation of $3.7 million for fiscal 2009. AMCON
ended the year with stockholders' equity of $23.8 million.

"We continue to expend significant energy and resources developing profit making
opportunities and programs for our customers. For example, a well run food
service program drives traffic to our customer`s stores and increases their
bottom line. Our new northwest Arkansas customers have expressed significant
interest in these programs," said Kathleen Evans, President of AMCON`s wholesale
distribution segment. "We strive to be the service leader in the market because
we believe that will keep us in a leadership position during tough times," added
Evans.

"Our customers have a strong identity of interest with our Akins and
Chamberlin`s brands. The stores stand for quality, service and a wide variety of
products at an attractive price. We are enthusiastic about our new store opening
in Tulsa in 2010. We have maintained discipline in terms of opening new stores
over the years. However, we felt the timing was appropriate and the terms of
this particular situation made sense for our stockholders. We will continue to
be looking to open new stores as well as acquire existing stores as the
opportunities present themselves. Our long term objective is to increase the
penetration in the markets we presently serve and to opportunistically add new
markets which are suited to our business model. Additionally, we have made
prudent capital expenditures to make sure that our existing base of stores are
at the high levels our customers expect," said Eric Hinkefent, President of
AMCON`s retail health food segment.

"We are focused on maintaining high degrees of liquidity in our balance sheet in
the short term. We were able to increase our stockholders equity by $12.8
million and reduce total debt by $20.9 million in fiscal 2009," said Andrew
Plummer, AMCON`s Chief Financial Officer. "We believe a conservative balance
sheet is prudent in anticipation of softness in the broader economy that will
continue to impact our customers in fiscal 2010. This positions our organization
to move decisively from a financial perspective when events and circumstances
warrant. It also enables us to best deliver value to our customers and to draw
down on the line from time-to-time to develop profitable opportunities on their
behalf," added Plummer.

AMCON is a leading wholesale distributor of consumer products, including
beverages, candy, tobacco, groceries, food service, frozen and chilled foods,
and health and beauty care products with locations in Arkansas, Illinois,
Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Chamberlin's Natural Foods,
Inc. and Health Food Associates, Inc., both wholly-owned subsidiaries of The
Healthy Edge, Inc., operate health and natural product retail stores in central
Florida (6), Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma (4). The retail stores
operate under the names Chamberlin's Market & Cafe and Akins Natural Foods
Market.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks
and uncertainties and which reflect management's current beliefs and estimates
of future economic circumstances, industry conditions, Company performance and
financial results. A number of factors could affect the future results of the
Company and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed
in the Company's forward-looking statements including, without limitation,
availability of sufficient cash resources to conduct its business and meet its
capital expenditures needs. Moreover, past financial performance should not be
considered a reliable indicator of future performance. Accordingly, the Company
claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements
contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect
to all such forward-looking statements.

Visit AMCON Distributing Company's web site at: www.amcon.com

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

AMCON Distributing Company and Subsidiaries
September 30, 2009 2008
ASSETS
Current assets:

Cash $ 309,914 $ 457,681
Accounts receivable, less allowance
for doubtful accounts of $0.9 million
and $0.8 million in 2009 and 2008, respectively 28,393,198 27,198,414
Inventories, net 34,486,027 37,330,969
Deferred income taxes 1,701,568 1,260,609
Current assets of discontinued operations - 18,947
Prepaid and other current assets 1,728,576 3,519,650
Total current assets 66,619,283 69,786,270

Property and equipment, net 11,256,627 10,907,541
Goodwill 5,848,808 5,848,808
Other intangible assets, net 3,373,269 3,373,269
Deferred income taxes - 234,171
Non-current assets of discontinued operations - 2,032,047
Other assets 1,026,395 1,123,252
$ 88,124,382 $ 93,305,358
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable $ 15,222,689 $ 14,738,214
Accrued expenses 6,768,924 5,275,697
Accrued wages, salaries and bonuses 3,257,832 2,636,699
Income taxes payable 3,984,258 313,021
Current liabilities of discontinued operations - 4,041,837
Current maturities of credit facility 177,867 3,046,000
Current maturities of long-term debt 1,470,445 787,128
Total current liabilities 30,882,015 30,838,596

Credit facility, less current maturities 22,655,861 32,155,005
Deferred income taxes 1,256,713 -
Long-term debt, less current maturities 5,066,185 6,525,881
Noncurrent liabilities of discontinued operations - 6,542,310

Series A cumulative, convertible preferred stock, $.01 par value
100,000 authorized and issued, liquidation preference
$25.00 per share 2,500,000 2,438,355

Series B cumulative, convertible preferred stock, $.01 par value
80,000 authorized and issued, liquidation preference
$25.00 per share 2,000,000 1,857,645

Series C cumulative, convertible preferred stock, $.01 par value
80,000 authorized and issued at September 30, 2008,
liquidation preference $25.00 per share - 1,982,372
Commitments and contingencies

Shareholders' equity:
Preferred stock, $0.01 par value, 1,000,000 shares authorized,
180,000 shares outstanding and issued in Series A and B at
September 2009 and 260,000 shares outstanding and issued
in Series A, B and C at September 2008 referred to above - -
Common stock, $0.01 par value, 3,000,000 shares
authorized, 573,232 shares outstanding at September 2009
and 570,397 shares outstanding at September 2008 5,732 5,704
Additional paid-in capital 7,617,494 6,995,948
Retained earnings 16,140,382 3,963,542
Total shareholders' equity 23,763,608 10,965,194
$ 88,124,382 $ 93,305,358

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

AMCON Distributing Company and Subsidiaries
Fiscal Years Ended September 2009 2008

Sales (including excise taxes of $263.7 million and
$206.8 million, respectively) $ 907,953,044 $ 860,451,122

Cost of sales 839,813,225 795,774,780
Gross profit 68,139,819 64,676,342

Selling, general and administrative expenses 51,539,775 51,631,324
Depreciation and amortization 1,216,089 1,386,218
52,755,864 53,017,542
Operating income 15,383,955 11,658,800

Other expense (income):
Interest expense 1,627,373 2,986,215
Other income, net (104,259 ) (114,613 )
1,523,114 2,871,602
Income from continuing operations
before income tax expense 13,860,841 8,787,198
Income tax expense 5,367,000 3,194,000
Income from continuing operations 8,493,841 5,593,198

Discontinued operations
Gain on asset disposal and debt settlement,
net of income tax expense of $2.7 million 4,666,264 -

Loss from discontinued operations, net of
income tax benefit of $0.1 million and
$0.2 million, respectively (186,370 ) (260,952 )

Income (loss) on discontinued operations 4,479,894 (260,952 )

Net income 12,973,735 5,332,246
Dividends on convertible preferred stock (568,653 ) (419,839 )

Net income available to common shareholders $ 12,405,082 $ 4,912,407

Basic earnings (loss) per share
available to common shareholders:
Continuing operations $ 14.45 $ 9.65
Discontinued operations 8.16 (0.49 )

Net basic earnings per share
available to common shareholders $ 22.61 $ 9.16

Diluted earnings (loss) per share
available to common shareholders:
Continuing operations $ 10.87 $ 6.57
Discontinued operations 5.74 (0.31 )

Net diluted earnings per share
available to common shareholders $ 16.61 $ 6.26
Weighted average shares outstanding:
Basic 548,616 536,319
Diluted 781,265 851,298

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

AMCON Distributing Company and Subsidiaries
Fiscal Years Ended September 2009 2008

CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES:
Net income $ 12,973,735 $ 5,332,246
Deduct: Income (loss) from discontinued operations,
net of tax 4,479,894 (260,952 )

Income from continuing operations 8,493,841 5,593,198

Adjustments to reconcile income from
continuing operations to net cash flows
from operating activities:
Depreciation 1,216,089 1,359,417
Amortization - 26,801
Loss (gain) on sale of property and equipment 24,915 (39,619 )
Stock based compensation 531,600 435,250
Net excess tax benefit on equity-based awards (2,245 ) (16,592 )
Deferred income taxes 1,049,925 2,719,652
Provision for losses on doubtful accounts 124,574 505,000
Provision for losses on inventory obsolescence 299,155 101,998

Changes in assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable (1,319,358 ) 145,524
Inventories 2,545,787 (7,694,240 )
Prepaid and other current assets 1,791,074 2,415,558
Other assets 96,857 (30,102 )
Accounts payable (80,446 ) (515,348 )
Accrued expenses and accrued wages, salaries and bonuses 2,113,154 415,879
Income taxes payable 3,673,482 (38,160 )

Net cash flows from operating activities - continuing operations 20,558,404 5,384,216
Net cash flows from operating activities - discontinued operations (2,673,712 ) (230,042 )

Net cash flows from operating activities 17,884,692 5,154,174

CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
Purchase of property and equipment (1,673,432 ) (845,156 )
Proceeds from sales of property and equipment 107,255 86,209

Net cash flows from investing activities (1,566,177 ) (758,947 )

CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES:
Net payments on bank credit agreements (12,367,277 ) (3,653,175 )
Principal payments on long-term debt (788,712 ) (656,092 )
Proceeds from exercise of stock options 87,729 148,384
Net excess tax benefit on equity-based awards 2,245 16,592
Redemption of Series C convertible preferred stock (2,000,000 ) -
Dividends paid on convertible preferred stock (347,025 ) (419,839 )
Dividends on common stock (228,242 ) (90,970 )

Net cash flows from financing activities - continuing operations (15,641,282 ) (4,655,100 )

Net cash flows from financing activities - discontinued operations (825,000 ) -

Net cash flow from financing activities (16,466,282 ) (4,655,100 )

Net change in cash (147,767 ) (259,873 )

Cash, beginning of year 457,681 717,554

Cash, end of year $ 309,914 $ 457,681

Fiscal Years 2009 2008
Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:
Cash paid during the year for interest $ 1,719,895 $ 3,116,098
Cash paid during the year for income taxes 3,249,594 354,508

Supplemental disclosure of non-cash information:
Constructive dividends on Series A, B and C Convertible
Preferred Stock $ 221,628 -
Acquisition of equipment through capital leases 12,333 277,624
Equipment acquisitions classified as accounts payable 11,580 -

TSI disposition - discontinued operations:
Property and equipment, net $ (2,032,047 ) -
Accrued expenses (925,452 ) -
Long-term debt (6,945,548 ) -
Deferred gain on CPH settlement (1,542,312 ) -

AMCON Distributing Company
Christopher H. Atayan, 312-327-1770
Fax: 312-527-3964

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