Tandy Leather Factory Reports Q4’17 Sales Up 1.7% Over Prior Year 4th Quarter and Schedules Earnings Announcement and Conference Call

FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 08, 2018 -- Tandy Leather Factory, Inc. (NASDAQ:TLF) reported today sales for the fourth quarter of 2017 and announced plans to release financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2017.

• Total sales for the fourth quarter of 2017 were $24.5 million, up 1.7% over fourth quarter 2016.  North America increased 2.1%, while International decreased 8.0%.
• The company’s 2017 EPS are expected to be negatively impacted by an estimated 3 cents from the new US tax law, primarily due to the deemed repatriation of accumulated overseas earnings and profits. 
• Tandy’s 2017 financial results will be released on Wednesday, March 7, 2018 after the market closes.  A conference call will be conducted by senior management at 10:00 am Eastern Time on Thursday, March 8, 2018, and will be accessible to the public by calling 877-312-5524 or 253-237-1144.  Callers should dial in approximately 5 minutes before the call begins.  A conference call replay will be available through 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on March 13, 2018 and can be accessed by calling 855-859-2056 or 404-537-3406.  For both, reference conference ID number 5879805.  This call will be webcast and accessible at the company’s web site at www.tandyleather.com.   

Shannon Greene, CEO, commented, “We were pleased to deliver a strong finish to the year, with our sales improvement the result of new merchandising efforts, targeted holiday promotions – particularly Black Friday and Super Saturday, as well as the expanded December shopping hours in our US stores.  By customer group, however, the trends we’ve seen all year continued as our retail customers accounted for a 7% sales increase, while our sales to our non-retail customers were down 5%.  While we don’t like the negative trend with our non-retail customers, the decrease in the fourth quarter was less than the 9% that we had experienced through the first nine-months of 2017.  If there is a silver lining, it is that the shift in customer mix to more retail and less non-retail supports our gross profit margin.  I look forward to sharing more of our 2017 results and our long-term outlook and strategic plans in early March.”

Tandy Leather Factory, Inc., (http://www.tandyleather.com), headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a specialty retailer of a broad product line including leather, leatherworking tools, buckles and adornments for belts, leather dyes and finishes, saddle and tack hardware, and do-it-yourself kits. The Company distributes its products through its 115 North American stores located in 42 US states and 7 Canadian provinces, and four International stores located in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Spain.  Its common stock trades on the Nasdaq with the symbol "TLF".  To be included on Tandy Leather Factory’s email distribution list, go to http://www.b2i.us/irpass.asp?BzID=1625&to=ea&s=0.

This news release may contain statements regarding future events, occurrences, circumstances, activities, performance, outcomes and results that are considered “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results and events may differ from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: changes in general economic conditions, negative trends in general consumer-spending levels, failure to realize the anticipated benefits of opening retail stores; availability of hides and leathers and resultant price fluctuations; change in customer preferences for our product, and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and except as required by law, we do not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.