Tandy Leather Factory Inc reported that sales for the month of January were $4.6 million, an increase of 1% from $4.5 million last year.
Retail Leathercraft posted a 15% sales increase for January, with sales totaling $2.0 million compared to $1.8 million in January 2006. The 52 comparable stores' sales were flat for the month compared to the same period last year. The 12 stores opened since December 2005 added January sales of $276,000.
Wholesale Leathercraft posted sales of $2.5 million for January, down 3% over January 2006 sales of $2.6 million. Within the Wholesale Leathercraft division, the wholesale centers' sales were down 3% for the month while the National Account group posted a January sales gain of 8%.
Chief Executive Officer and President, Ron Morgan, commented, "We did not get the start to the year that we wanted in either divisions. I think the weakness in our sales is attributable to several factors. Many of our stores in the middle of the country lost sales days due to winter storms. The personnel just couldn't get to the stores for several days.”
“Some of those stores' sales are still suffering as their customers are recovering from the lingering effects of power outages, property damage, etc. Being out of some specific leathers this month didn't help us. A large shipment has been held at the port all month due to damage to the container.”
“And finally, the rollout of some of our new products expected to occur at the beginning of month didn't happen because of some production and delivery delays. While no single issue creates significant problems for us, when they all happen at once, they can certainly affect our sales by several percentage points."
Tandy Leather Factory Inc
marketing@alchempro.com
