The story
Origin
Tandy Leather began as a family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas in 1919. Norton Hinckley and Dave L. Tandy partnered to start the Hinckley-Tandy Leather Company and concentrated their efforts on selling sole leather and other supplies to shoe repair dealers in Texas. During World War II, civilian leather rationing prompted the company to move towards leatherworking as a hobby, which gave the company supply priority by providing for the armed forces.
Tandy's son, Charles joined the business after returning from the war in 1948. He had been tracking the growth of leathercraft through correspondence with his father and wanted to put more focus on this industry. Among his first moves was the opening of the first two retail stores in 1950 specializing exclusively in leathercraft. Norton Hinckley did not agree with the transition and the founders came to an agreement where the company split and Hinckley would continue in the shoe findings industry.
Tandy Leather relied heavily on its formula of mail order sales, however the venture made a 100 percent return on investment the first year. Tandy had $2.9 million in sales and opened 15 stores within the first two years. The following decade was filled with rapid growth through the continuous opening of new stores and the acquisition of other handicraft companies. By 1961, Tandy Leather was operating 125 stores in 105 cities of the United States and Canada and the company name was changed to Tandy Corporation. In 1963, Tandy Corporation acquired management control of the Radio Shack Corporation and, after two years, Charles Tandy had turned the company's $4 million loss into a profit. During that time of recovery, the Tandy Corporation purchased common stock until they owned 85% of the outstanding Radio Shack common stock.
In 1975, the Tandy Corporation Board of Directors announced a plan to separate Tandy's businesses into three distinct publicly held companies. The two new companies would be named Tandycrafts, Inc. and Tex Tan-Hickok, Inc. This plan was publicized as a strategy to provide intensive leadership and tailored management of the three distinct and diverse businesses of the company. With this transition, Radio Shack and Tandy Leather Company were no longer under the same corporate umbrella.
The beginning of The Leather Factory
Wray Thompson was promoted to President of Tandy Leather Company in 1976 and Dave Ferrill was promoted to the position of National Sales Manager; they oversaw 288 stores. Ron Morgan was promoted to the Eastern Divisional VP in 1977. Although they opened their 300th store that year, the popularity of Nature-Tand's products had begun to slide as reflected by their sales and profit records.
Charles Tandy died unexpectedly on November 4, 1978, at the age of 60. Concurrently, key stakeholders began to question the direction of the company and Wray Thompson resigned from his position as president.
Wray Thompson's future in the leathercraft industry was uncertain, however Ron Morgan paid Wray Thompson a visit and the two colleagues began to brainstorm; before the evening was over, they had developed an informal plan for a shared new enterprise in the leathercraft industry.
Initially three separate companies were set up:
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Midas Leathercraft Tool Company, Inc. – an importer/exporter of New Zealand made tools
MT Enterprises – a partnership engaged in finding and developing customers to consult in the leathercraft industry
Midas Leathercraft – a retail leathercraft store similar to that of a Tandy store, where the partners would also office.
Shortly thereafter, the partners were contacted by the Scholze Tannery, a division of The Brown Group in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to solicit a consulting agreement to help Scholze join the leathercraft market. Wray Thompson and Ron Morgan departed for Chattanooga, TN in 1980 to set up the new company later to be known as The Leather Factory. Prior to their departure they hired Jon Thompson, Wray Thompson's oldest son, to begin the task of setting up Midas Leathercraft retail operations in Arlington, TX.
With merchandise finally in Tennessee, Jon Thompson was called to Chattanooga as he had been waiting three months to open his own store as a dealer for The Leather Factory in Arlington, TX. Help in Tennessee was still sparse, so Jon Thompson pulled, packed and shipped his own store opening merchandise order before driving straight through from Tennessee to Texas before the freight truck arrived.
By 1984, the manufacturer Ivan Leathercraft was producing over 1,000 items for Midas Leathercraft Tool Company, who then supplied those items to The Leather Factory and others. They had opened six stores and named George Hurst, long-time associate and ex-merchandising manager for Tandy, general manager of The Leather Factory. Regardless of their mounting success, the Brown Group decided to sell off or close down all companies that were under $100 million annually, unprofitable or non-shoe related. The Leather Factory, consisting of six locations, was offered for sale.
From Wikipedia’s article on Tandy Leather Factory, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6