Tandy Corporation

Tandy Corporation
FormerlyHinckley-Tandy Leather Company (1919–1956)
General American Industries (1956–1961)
IndustryRetail
Founded1919; 105 years ago (1919) (as Hinckley-Tandy Leather Company)
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
FoundersNorton Hinckley
Dave L. Tandy
DefunctMay 2000; 24 years ago (2000-05)
FateRenamed to RadioShack
SuccessorRadioShack
Tandy Leather Factory
ProductsLeather goods
Electronics

Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather-goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, the company expanded into the hobby market, making leather moccasins and coin purses, making huge sales among Scouts, leading to a fast growth in sales.[1]

Entering the 1960s, aiming to broaden the company horizon, Charles Tandy acquired a number of craft retail companies, including RadioShack in 1963, then an almost bankrupt chain of electronics stores in Boston.

In the 1980s, now led by John Roach as CEO, the corporation started to invest into the personal computer market, being one of the pioneers in the personal computer race, being lauded by the magazine Financial World as "the driving force at the front-running company in the red-hot personal computer race".[1]

In 2000, the Tandy Corporation name was dropped, and the entity became the RadioShack Corporation.

  1. ^ a b "Tandy Corp". Encyclopedia.com.