AMCON Distributing Company and subsidiaries (AMCON) primarily engages in the wholesale distribution of consumer products in the Central, Rocky Mountain, Great Lakes, Mid-South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.
Segments
The company operates through two business segments, Wholesale Distribution (Wholesale) and Retail Health Food (Retail).
Wholesale segment
This segment distributes consumer products and provides a full range of programs and services to its customers that are focus...
AMCON Distributing Company and subsidiaries (AMCON) primarily engages in the wholesale distribution of consumer products in the Central, Rocky Mountain, Great Lakes, Mid-South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.
Segments
The company operates through two business segments, Wholesale Distribution (Wholesale) and Retail Health Food (Retail).
Wholesale segment
This segment distributes consumer products and provides a full range of programs and services to its customers that are focused on helping them manage their business and increase their profitability. The company serves customers primarily in the Central, Rocky Mountain, Great Lakes, Mid-South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.
This Segment is one of the largest wholesale distributors in the United States serving retail outlets, including convenience stores, grocery stores, liquor stores, drug stores, and tobacco shops. It distributes over 20,000 different consumer products, including cigarettes and tobacco products, candy and other confectionery products, beverages, groceries, paper products, health and beauty care products, frozen and refrigerated products, and institutional foodservice products.
This segment offers retailers the ability to take advantage of manufacturer- and company-sponsored sales and marketing programs, merchandising and product category management services, and the use of information systems and data services that are focused on minimizing retailers’ investment in inventory, while seeking to maximize their sales and profits. In addition, its wholesale distributing capabilities provide valuable services to both manufacturers of consumer products and convenience retailers. Manufacturers benefit from its broad retail coverage, inventory management, efficiency in processing small orders, and frequency of deliveries. Convenience retailers benefit from the company’s distribution capabilities by gaining access to a broad product line, inventory optimization and merchandising expertise, information systems, and accessing trade credit.
This segment operates distribution centers located in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia. These distribution centers, combined with cross-dock facilities. The company’s principal suppliers include Altria, RJ Reynolds, ITG Brands, Hershey, Kellanova, Kraft Heinz, and Mars Wrigley. It also markets private label lines of water, candy products, batteries, and other products.
Retail segment
This segment operates health food retail stores located throughout the Midwest and Florida.
The Retail Segment, through the company’s Healthy Edge Retail Group subsidiary, is a specialty retailer of natural/organic groceries and operates retail health food stores under the Chamberlin’s Natural Foods, Akin’s Natural Foods, and Earth Origins Market banners.
The company operates within the natural products retail industry, which is a subset of the United States grocery industry. This industry, including conventional, natural, gourmet and specialty food markets, mass and discount retailers, warehouse clubs, health food stores, dietary supplement retailers, drug stores, farmers markets, mail order and online retailers, and multi-level marketers. These stores carry over 32,000 different national and regionally branded and private label products, including high-quality natural, organic, and specialty foods consisting of produce, baked goods, frozen foods, nutritional supplements, personal care items, and general merchandise.
Principal Products
The company offers cigarettes, candy, beverages, foodservice, groceries, health food products, paper products, health and beauty care products, and tobacco products.
Acquisitions
Burklund Distributors, Inc.
On April 5, 2024, the company acquired substantially all the net operating assets of Burklund, a wholesale distributor to convenience stores operating in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and Iowa.
Richmond Master Distributors, Inc.
On June 21, 2024, the company acquired substantially all the net operating assets of Richmond Master, a wholesale distributor to convenience stores operating in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.
Competition
Wholesale segment
The company’s principal competitors are national wholesalers, such as McLane Co., Inc. (Temple, Texas) and Performance Food Group (Richmond, Virginia), as well as regional wholesalers, such as H.T. Hackney Company (Knoxville, Tennessee) and Imperial Super Regional Distributors (Elmwood, Louisiana) along with a host of smaller grocery and tobacco wholesalers. It also faces competition from Amazon which pursues a vertical, multi-channel sales strategy targeting both retail consumers and business level customers.
Retail segment
The company faces competition from a variety of sales channels, including local, regional, and national retailers, specialty supermarkets, membership clubs, farmers markets, other natural foods stores, and internet and/or digital direct-to-consumer retailers, each of which competes with it on the basis of product selection, quality, customer service, and price. These competitors include companies, such as Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Natural Grocers, General Nutrition Centers and Vitamin Shoppe. It also faces competition from Amazon and other online competitors which continue to pursue vertical, multi-channel sales strategies targeting both retail consumers and business level customers.
The company also competes with specialty supermarkets, other independent natural foods store chains, small specialty stores, and restaurants. In recent years, conventional supermarkets and mass market outlets, such as Kroger, Albertsons, Walmart, Publix, Aldi, Trader Joe, and Costco have significantly increased their offerings of organic and natural products adding another layer of competition.
Seasonality
Sales in the wholesale distribution industry are somewhat seasonal and tend to be higher in warm weather months during which its convenience store customers experience increased customer traffic. The warm weather months generally fall within the company’s third and fourth fiscal quarters (year ended September 30, 2024). Its retail health food business does not generally experience significant seasonal fluctuations in its business.
Flexible Distribution Capabilities and Customer Service Programs
As a large, full-service wholesale distributor, the company offers retailers a wide array of manufacturer- and company-sponsored sales and marketing programs, merchandising and product category management services, and the use of information systems that are focused on minimizing retailers’ investment in inventory, while seeking to maximize their sales and profit.
Government Regulation
AMCON is subject to regulation by federal, state and local governmental agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
History
AMCON Distributing Company was incorporated in Delaware in 1986.
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