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Alliance One International Reports Continued Earnings Growth for Fiscal Year 2009 - Yahoo! Finance 

ance One International, Inc. (NYSE: AOI - News) today announced results for its fiscal year ended March 31, 2009.

For the year ended March 31, 2009, the Company reported net income of $132.6 million, or $1.50 per basic share, compared to net income of $16.9 million, or $0.19 per basic share, for the prior fiscal year.

Robert E. Harrison, Chief Executive Officer, said "By all measures Alliance One had a very solid year that fully met our expectations. Our global and talented workforce executed extremely well against our plans in a turbulent environment, both from a supply and demand standpoint as well as from a highly volatile foreign exchange environment. We were able to navigate through the various growing and selling seasons globally in close consultation with our large customer base to ensure that the economics along the supply chain were appropriate in order to ensure the security of future supply. The scenario we see going forward as a result should reflect crop sizes sufficient to serve future demand, weather permitting. We continue to work closely with our global farmer base to ensure their sustainability while using our significant agronomy resources to also ensure that best practices and total product integrity is being maintained in the face of increasing product regulation.

Mr. Harrison concluded, "Heading into the coming year our balance sheet is in good shape with strong liquidity and is well positioned to support future growth. As we look forward global supply and demand remains dynamic with flue-cured tobacco near equilibrium and burley filler styles potentially in some degree of over supply due primarily to the large Malawi crop this year that should adjust itself the next. Our global footprint, customer initiatives, new products and expense discipline are all contributing to our improved performance and our commitment to drive further shareholder value."

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