"Sorry, we never offer discounts. But some small accessories will be given as gifts during holidays like Christmas or New Year," Lei Xia, a 22-year-old saleswoman at a Carpenter Tan wooden comb franchise in the Beijing Joy City mall told a customer.

For such a simple product Carpenter Tan wields redwood tree sized clout. It doesn't need to reduce prices and floated through the economic downturn. The small Joy City shop is one of more than 50 in Beijing and 853 franchises across the country. In addition, there are two outlets in Singapore and Malaysia respectively and one in the US.

The handcrafted antique style combs – also available in horn –range from less than 100 yuan ($14.60) to several hundred yuan and remain wildly popular as personal necessities as well as gifts.

Both Lei and Liu Li, the franchise owner of the Joy City shop and five others in Beijing, know Carpenter Tan's popularity but when told of the news that the company is preparing for a listing on Hong Kong Main Board said they knew no details. But Liu, a woman in her late thirties, said she was inspired by the news. Starting setting up the first shop in Beijing in 2002, Liu now owns six franchises in the city. Liu, who opened the first shop in Beijing in 2002, said she plans to open additional outlets in the metropolis next year.

 
Bald 'comb king'

The turnover of Carpenter Tan's total business reached 65.22 million yuan ($9.55 million) in the first six months this year, up 12.14 million yuan ($1.78 million) over the same period last year. Its net profit from January to June nearly doubled compared with the same period last year to 21.33 million yuan ($3.12 million), according to a statement released Monday at the company's investor meeting held in Hong Kong announcing its plan to go public on December 29.

The man behind Carpenter Tan is an unlikely figure. Bald and one-handed, Tan Chuanhua – nicknamed "King of combs" – went from being a street vendor peddling combs in Chongqing in 1993 to the founder, chairman and CEO of Carpenter Tan Holdings Limited in 1997.

Tan, in his mid-50s, comes from a long line of carpenters, but he didn't start in the comb business until in his thirties. Born in a village in Chongqing, Tan lost his right hand due to an accident at 18 years old. Dreaming of being a painter and poet in his early life, he once led a vagabond life for about two years. But he finally went back to his hometown after becoming ill and inherited the family business. Tan wrote a series of stories titled "My Autobiography" that recounted his early experiences for his blog on sina.com.

Tan's business did not begin smoothly but the founder showed his talent for coping with difficulties.

The company once faced problems due to a lack of liquidity in 1997. But in an interview with Chongqing Economic Times, Tan said he was looking for a bank to help with a cash injection and the story gained wide attention from both domestic and overseas media and brought in 1 million yuan ($146,453) from a local branch of China Construction Bank.

 
Listing dreams

Tan is now at his peak. The company plans to float 62.5 million new shares with a public offering between HK$2.15 ($0.28) and 2.93 ($0.38) per share. The share offer could gather HK$138 million ($17.8 million), based on an average price of HK$2.54 ($0.33) per share.

As for his reasons behind the listing, Tan told 21st Century Business Herald in an article published Wednesday that the company is not thirsty for money at the moment, but expects to increase Carpenter Tan's brand awareness and set up a platform to attract financing in the future via the listing.

More attention will be paid to the company's high-end home accessories line when it uses HK$24 million ($3.1 million) from the listing to open 30 new Tan's stores in China by 2011, according to its prospectus. Unlike Carpenter Tan's, Tan's stock in trade isn't combs but deluxe wooden furniture and hand crafted home decorative items. The Tan's chain debuted in July 2007, but there are currently fewer than 10.

Moreover, the company plans to use HK$15 million ($1.93 million) from the share offering to set up 25 stores overseas by 2010, while another HK$15 million will be allocated to further develop an online sales network and group sales to corporate customers.

While Hong Kong will be a frontier market for Carpenter Tan to expand its internationalization, the company will continue to focus on the domestic market because cultural differences will certainly affect its overseas business, Su Jianping, investor relations manager of the company, told 21st Century Business Herald.

Geng Changsheng, managing director of Carpenter Tan, told 21st Century Business Herald that the company has planned for the listing since 2002. If the listing is successful, Tan and his wife will hold 67.88 percent of the total shares, other staff in the company will get 7.12 percent, and the remaining 25 percent will belong to public shareholders.

The public offer began Tuesday and will end tomorrow when the offer price is expected to be fixed