Tan Carpenter: Legend Of Small Shop

At the end of 2009, Tan carpenter Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Tan carpenter") landed at the Hongkong stock exchange. This is somewhat surprising. A franchise company selling wooden comb can also be listed.

As a manufacturing and selling wooden comb enterprise, Tan carpenter's turnover in 2009 amounted to 139 million yuan, while the franchisee is its only sales channel. How can founder Tan Chuanhua let 300 franchisees willingly follow the success of this "small shop listing" legend?

Sales miracle of single product

From 1995, the "Tan carpenter" trademark was officially registered. Tan Chuanhua, the carpenter's family, chose wooden comb as the only product. In the way of sales, he tried to hawk along the street, take the initiative to enter the shopping mall, and was forced to open a store, and gradually gained a foothold.

The real way to develop and expand with franchising is quite a coincidence.

Tan Chuanhua, the founder of Tan carpenter.

In 1998, a customer in Nanchong, Sichuan, volunteered to set up a branch shop for the carpenter in the old town. Tan Chuanhua's promise was that "no fee will be accepted, the decoration fee will be borne by the franchisee, the purchase will be paid first, the sale can be returned," and there is no special requirement for store location, decoration and so on.

The first franchisee was born and soon broke through 100 in two years.

In 1999, Li Xianqun, the Secretary of the Wanzhou branch of ICBC, was about to retire. He thought of the "recruitment bank" incident of Tan carpenter two years ago. He felt that the boss was very brave, and Li Ping, who was also a friend of Tan carpenter's brand consultant, decided to go to Sichuan and Fuling to become a carpenter joiner shop.

Today, she has 11 stores in Beijing.

For this wooden comb that has been selling for 8 years, Li Xianqun's understanding is the same as that of 8 years ago: combs are necessities of life, but the limitation is that it is not strong enough to repeat consumption.

But Tan carpenter, as the representative of "daily use of crafts, and processing of daily necessities", has an advantage in quality and brand competitiveness.

Until now, many people do not understand the profitability of Tan carpenter in the "dead end" of a single channel, a single brand or a single product.

For this, Li Xianqun did not fully understand that her 11 shops, some months can sell seven or eight yuan, less can only sell two or thirty thousand yuan, but sales in the same period of the year is not big.

In the field of retailing franchising, how to sell a single product is a big problem.

Two years ago, Chen Siting, a market consultant for Beijing carpenter, took up an important task of selling guidance to franchisees. He often went to the franchisees to chat with the shop assistants and analyzed the sales of each product.

He will give lectures to the franchisees in Beijing market every month, all of which will be shared.

But everyone knows that "gift" is the most practical identity of Tan carpenter's wooden comb, so that people who like the brand are constantly in love with new products is the most important.

In addition to the company's internal R & D team, professional websites, institutions and international designers firms are contributing to the development of new products of Tan carpenter, which makes nearly 3000 varieties of Tan carpenter and has gained 60 patents.

As a result, the price of a comb can be sold to dozens of times of similar products.

Find "strategic franchisee"

For the joiner of Tan carpenter, it takes some energy at the beginning of the shop, and when the business is on the right track, there is not much to worry about. The CIS system reduces the trouble for shopkeepers, and without frequent promotions, the price is unified "one price". The management of Tan carpenter shop is not very high. If there is any problem, find a district manager or supervisor.

However, at present, there are only two or three people in the district managers and supervisors of one or even several provinces.

In Chen Siting's words, shopkeepers are idle and will start thinking about opening another shop.

In fact, few people in Tan carpenter's franchisee only open a shop. For them, there is not much difference between managing a store and managing four or five houses. Because of the low profit margin of a single store, many stores can give owners a better return.

More than 95% of the shops in Beijing will be profitable, and a year and a half will be able to recoup investment. The remaining 5% is often caused by landlords' refusal to renew contracts, so opening a store can reduce risks.

Li Xianqun's energy was spent on finding shop sites.

Prior to 2003, under the advice of consultants, Tan Chuanhua had been hoping to open outlets in Beijing without opening up the franchise system.

With the encouragement of his plan, Li Xianqun became one of the first four franchisees to be admitted to Beijing. The four time he went north was able to find the shop address.

In 2008, at the annual meeting of Tan carpenter company, she will be in Beijing to find the store site to tell the scene executives and franchisees, even Tan Chuanhua was moved to tears.

Looking for a store now is becoming more and more smooth for her.

This is the case with the newly opened shop in Shang Chao recently. Because of its good performance at Carrefour's shop, the head of investment promotion of Auchan and Wumart will take the initiative to invite her in.

For Tan Chuanhua, a strategic franchisee like Li Xianqun occupies an important position in the system. This is why Tan carpenter has no direct outlets in the mainland, and the more than 800 stores are all franchised stores.

Strategic franchisees can increase revenue by opening more stores, while shipments at headquarters are also increasing, and management costs are reduced accordingly.

But in the control of franchisees, Tan carpenter has always maintained a rigorous style.

Franchisee has no right to promote, even group buying price is a national unified discount.

The headquarters will take the performance level, management level and complaint situation as the basis of evaluation. The franchisees can be divided into 5 levels, and the higher level stores can get more sales qualifications for new products.