US-based specialty retailer and wholesale distributor of leather, leatherworking tools, adornments for belts, leather dyes and finishes and saddle and tack hardware Tandy Leather Factory, Inc. has posted improved financial results for the first quarter of 2006. Net income for the quarter ended March 31, was $1.3 million—a 28% increase from the $1 million reported in the first quarter of 2005. Total sales for the first quarter were $14.4 million, up 13% from $12.7 million in the same quarter last year.

Sales from the company’s Retail Leathercraft operation, consisting of the Tandy Leather retail store chain, increased $1.3 million in the first quarter, a 29% improvement over the comparable period last year. First quarter sales for the Wholesale Leathercraft operation, consisting of the Leather Factory wholesale centres and the National Account group, increased $474,000 or 6% over the same quarter in 2005.