Virgin Group Ltd is a branded venture capital conglomerate of separately run companies that each use the Virgin brand of British business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle, among others. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding company; however Virgin's business and trading activities date to the 1970s. The net worth of Virgin Group LTD as of September 2008 is £5,010,000,000.
Although Branson retains complete ownership and control of the Virgin Brand, the commercial set up of companies using it is varied and complex. The group is sometimes perceived as a conglomerate, but this is not in fact the case. Each of the companies operating under the Virgin brand are separate entities, with some being wholly owned by Branson, while he holds minority or majority stakes in others. Occasionally, he simply licenses the brand to a company that has purchased a division from him, such as Virgin Mobile USA, Virgin Mobile Australia, Virgin Radio (now part of TIML Golden Square plc) and Virgin Music (now part of EMI). With a few exceptions, all of the companies began as wholly owned Virgin subsidiaries.
Virgin brands (under various ownership)
- Further information: List of Richard Branson's business ventures
- AirAsia X — long-haul budget airline operating from Malaysia (20% owned by Virgin Group)
- Oüı FM — rock radio station in France and Asia
- V Festival — two-day music festival held in two separate locations in the United Kingdom
- Virgin Active — a health club chain in South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the UK
- Virgin America — a United States budget airline based at San Francisco International Airport
- Virgin Atlantic Airways — an international carrier based at Heathrow Airport, London
- Virgin Balloon Flights — a hot air balloon operator
- Virgin Blue — an Australian-based airline operating in the South Pacific
- Virgin Books — publisher, retailer and distributor of books
- Virgin Brides — bridal wear shop in Manchester, UK
- Virgin Charter — a private jet online marketplace
- Virgin Comics — comic book producer
- Virgin Vie At Home — retailer of cosmetics, jewellery and homeware through internet, direct selling and Virgin Vie stores
- Virgin Drinks — drink manufacturer
- Virgin Experience Days — corporate and consumer experience events
- Virgin Flowers — Internet florist
- Virgin Galactic — a venture to market and operate commercial space flights, using spacecraft designed by Scaled Composites
- Virgin Games — online games and gambling
- Virgin Green Fund (originally known as Virgin Fuels) — venture capital firm for investing in petroleum alternatives
- Virgin Health Bank[2] — a business enabling parents—to—be to store their baby's stem cells
- Virgin Holidays — UK travel agency and tour operator for worldwide destinations served by Virgin Atlantic and its partner companies
- Virgin Limited Edition — exclusive hotel operator
- Virgin Limobike — passenger bike service in London
- Virgin Limousines — chauffeured limousine service in San Francisco and Northern California
- Virgin Media — provider or home telephone, cable television, broadband and mobile services to the United Kingdom
- Virgin Media Television — a British television network, made up of Virgin 1, Trouble, Bravo, Living TV & 50% stake in UKTV
- Virgin Mobile — brand used by several companies providing mobile phone service around the world
- Virgin Money — providers of financial services
- Virgin Nigeria — international, regional and domestic Nigerian airline
- Virgin Play — a Spanish publisher of video games, once part of the now defunct Virgin Interactive.
- Virgin Radio — Virgin branded radio stations around the world.
- Virgin Records — record label now owned by EMI
- Virgin Spa — shop chain retailing Virgin Cosmetics product
- Virgin Trains — a railway operator in the United Kingdom
- Virgin Unite — charitable foundation
- Virgin Vacations — U.S. travel agency
- Virgin Vines — A Californian—based company, created in 2005 and producer of Red and White wines
- Virgin Voucher — gift voucher scheme, also functions as a staff reward scheme
- Virgin Ware — clothes brand and retailer
See also
References
External links
- Business data
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