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It’s tea time for Le Château founder Herschel Segal, who rang the bell at the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York Friday to signal the initial public offering of David’s Tea, the chain of shops he founded in 2008 on a notion from his young cousin and co-founder, David Segal.

Herschel Segal, who built Le Château from a menswear shop in Place Victoria in 1959 to a cross-Canada fashion chain, is on the board of the David’s Tea and is major shareholder. David is in management, has some shares — and his name on the company banner.

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David Segal and president and CEO Sylvain Toutant joined Herschel Segal at the stock exchange Friday.

The chain is now 161 stores — 136 in Canada and 25 in the U.S. — and booked sales of $142 million for the year ending Jan. 31, 2015.

Shares were priced at $19 U.S., raising $97 million for the company. By midday, share price had surged to almost $26, a spike of about 36 per cent.

Here’s what Segal has had to say about his journey from fashion to the tea trade.