Tandy Leather April sales up 16%
US leather retailer Tandy Leather Factory has reported that sales for the month of April were $5.8 million, up 16% compared to April 2010 sales. Year to date sales are up 11% to $21.7 million in the current year from $19.6 million last year.
Retail Leathercraft sales rose 28% to $3.3 million compared to April 2010 sales of $2.6 million. There are no new stores in April so same store sales are also up 28% compared to the same period last year. Year-to-date sales for Retail Leathercraft are $12.0 million this year, a 17% increase over sales of $10.2 million for the same period of 2010. For the year to date, the 75 comparable stores’ sales were up 17% compared to sales reported for the same period in 2010.
Wholesale Leathercraft posted sales of $2.3 million for April, up 3% compared to April 2010 sales. Within the Wholesale Leathercraft division, the wholesale same store sales were up 10% for the month while the National Account group’s sales were down 31% from April 2010. For the year to date, Wholesale Leathercraft sales are $9 million compared to $8.9 million in 2010, up 2%. As of the end of April, year to date same store sales in the wholesale stores were up 5% compared to the same period last year and the National Account group’s sales are down 9%.
International Leathercraft sales, consisting of one store located in the UK, rose 18% to $147,000 compared to April 2010 sales of $125,000. Year-to-date sales are $656,000 this year, a 30% increase over sales of $506,000 for the same period of 2010.
CEO Jon Thompson, said: “We had a national open house event at all stores during the first week of April which added approximately $600,000 to our sales compared to April last year. We would have beaten last year’s April sales however, even without the event.”
Shannon L Greene, CFOsaid: “For the last eight months, our retail stores have had double-digit same store sales gains and our wholesale stores have had even to positive sales year over year. Simply stated, sales are trending very well. With regard to gross margin, product costs are rising and our retail prices are fairly inflexible until our next catalogue comes out in October. So we will continue to deal with downward pressure on our gross margins through the third quarter.”
