Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and

Nik Powell Nik Powell (4 November 1950 – 7 November 2019) was a British businessman and one of the co-founders of Virgin Records with Richard Branson. After operating a mail-order company, a small record shop, and a recording studio, the partners estab ...

in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the company registrars of the United Kingdom, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies (as permitted by the Companies Act) are in ...

, who class it as a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

; however Virgin's business and trading activities date back to the 1970s. The net worth of Virgin Group was estimated at £5–5.5 billion as of November 2014.

History

The name "Virgin" arose in 1970 when Richard Branson and

formed a

record shop A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records, but over the 20th century, record shops sold the new formats that were ...

, first as mail order and in 1971 with a physical store. They considered themselves virgins in business. Branson has described the "V" in the logo as an expressive

tick Ticks (order Ixodida) are parasitic arachnids that are part of the mite superorder Parasitiformes. Adult ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length depending on age, sex, species, and "fullness". Ticks are external parasites, living by ...

, representing the Virgin seal of approval. The original logo from 1973 was a completely different design intended to be used for the record company that was founded by Richard Branson and

. The logo was designed by British science-fiction artist and designer Roger Dean. According to Richard Branson in interviews and on the Virgin website, the more recent signature logo, introduced in 1978, was based on one that a designer scribbled on a napkin after a design meeting.

Corporate affairs

Virgin Group has its headquarters at The Battleship Building in the

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

district of the City of Westminster. Previously it was in The School House,

Brook Green Brook Green is an affluent London neighbourhood in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is located approximately west of Charing Cross. It is bordered by Kensington, Holland Park, Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith and Brackenbury Vi ...

, in the

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham. The borou ...

. The Virgin Group of companies have a complex structure that contains elements of a generic conglomerate and a keiretsu, and sometimes it simply licences its brand. Examples of licensing are

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

and

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

, which are owned by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

and Liberty Global respectively. In mid-May 2013, the Virgin Group expressed its intention to seek out opportunities in Australia's

healthcare industry The healthcare industry (also called the medical industry or health economy) is an aggregation and integration of sectors within the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, ...

to consolidate on the Group's Australian fitness centres. The Group also runs over 100

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

(NHS) services in the United Kingdom and the healthcare division of medical services group Assura after entering the British healthcare industry in 2011. Virgin Group announced the establishment of

Virgin Voyages Virgin Voyages is a cruise line headquartered in Plantation, Florida and a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Bain Capital. As of April 2022, Virgin Voyages has two ships in the fleet, with two more on order, all with an expected capa ...

on 4 December 2014 with financial backing from

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

. The cruise line would be led by CEO

Tom McAlpin Thomas Michael McAlpin (born 1959 in Miami, Florida) is the president and CEO of Virgin Voyages. He previously served as president and CEO of '' The World'', a privately owned residential ship. McAlpin also served as president of Disney Cruises, ...

, would have two new large ships built and be based in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area.

Virgin StartUp

Virgin StartUp is the Virgin Group's non-profit company, helping entrepreneurs across the UK to start, fund and scale their business. In 2013, Sir Richard visited Boxpark in Shoreditch, London, to launch the new organisation, revealing that he wanted to support anyone that had the same dreams and ambitions that he did as a young boy: “It was £300 from my mum that sparked the Virgin adventure 40 years ago. Today, young people need that same help and I believe Virgin StartUp will provide it – with access to early capital, strong mentorship, advice and promotion.” The organisation became a delivery partner for the UK Government's Start Up Loans Company, providing loan finance of between £500 and £25,000, advice, and mentoring to thousands of start-ups across the country. In 2016, it was awarded European Regional Development Funding and subsequently launched Ready, Steady, Grow with Virgin StartUp, a programme of support aimed at start-ups that were ready to grow. A year later, it launched the UK's first equity-based crowdfunding accelerator programme, Crowdboost. By 2018, the organisation had supported over 11,000 UK-based entrepreneurs, with over £35m in pre-seed funding.

Foodpreneur

In 2014, Branson and Virgin StartUp launched the "Foodpreneur" food and drink focused start-up competition. Winners received mentorship from Branson, legal support, and brand counseling. The 2014 winners included Proper Beans, Killer Tomato, Sweetpea Pantry, and Sweet Virtues. In 2015, winners were given the opportunity to pitch

Target Corporation Target Corporation ( doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a com ...

buyers in the US. The 2015 winners included Pip & Nut, Double Dutch Drinks, Harry Bromptons, Cauli Rice, and Mallow and Marsh. Only one start-up was announced winner of the 2017 Foodpreneur prize, The Snaffling Pig Co., who won a six-week rental space at Intu Lakeside, the retail center with the highest foot traffic in the U.K.

Senior leadership

* ''Chairman:'' Peter Norris (since 2009) * ''Chief Executive'': Josh Bayliss (since 2014)

List of former chairmen

Sir Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

(1970–2009)

List of former chief executives

# Sir Richard Branson (1970–2005) # Stephen Murphy (2005–2011) #

David Baxby David Baxby is the former CEO of Global Blue and former Co-CEO of the Virgin Group.Virgin.coFarewell from Stephen and hello to Josh and David, retrieved 2011-12-09. He was born on 12 September 1973 in Sydney, Australia. Baxby is currently based ...

and Josh Bayliss (2011–2014)

Subsidiaries and investments

G-VINE A330 Virgin Atlantic by Mark Harkin

Formerly owned ventures

* Absolute Radio: formerly Virgin Radio UK, rebranded in 2008 *

Air Nigeria Air Nigeria (originally Virgin Nigeria Airways, and then Nigerian Eagle Airlines) was the national flag carrier of Nigeria, which operated scheduled regional and domestic passenger services. The airline's base was Murtala Mohammed International ...

: Nigerian national airline launched as Virgin Nigeria, shares sold in 2010 * Connect Airways (

Flybe Flybe (pronounced ), styled as flybe, is a British airline based at Birmingham Airport, England. History The airline traces its history back to Jersey European Airways, which was set up in 1979 following the merger of Intra Airways and Expre ...

): 30% stake held through Virgin Atlantic. Entered administration in March 2020. * Virgin Airship and Balloon Company: Operating hot air balloons and airships for advertisers * Liquid Comics: comic book producer formerly known as Virgin Comics—sold to management in 2008 * Vie at Home: cosmetics retailer formerly known as Virgin Vie, sold to management in 2009 *

Virgin America Virgin America Inc. was a low-cost U.S. airline that operated from 2007 until 2018, when it was acquired by Alaska Airlines. The airline primarily focused on operating low-fare service between cities on the West Coast and other major metropol ...

: North American airline, sold to

Alaska Air Group Alaska Air Group is an American airline holding company based in SeaTac, Washington, United States. The group owns two certificated airlines, Alaska Airlines, a mainline carrier, and Horizon Air, a regional carrier. Alaska Airlines in turn whol ...

on 14 Dec 2016 * Virgin Brides: retailer specialising in bridal wear *

Virgin Care Virgin Care was a British private provider of community health and social services, commissioned by the National Health Service and local authorities in England. From 2010 the company was known as Virgin Care and was part of Virgin Group. In Dec ...

sold to Twenty20 Capital and rebranded as HCRG Care Group on 1 December 2021 * Virgin Cars: online car retailer, ceased trading in 2005 * Virgin Charter: online marketplace of private aircraft seat bookings * Virgin Cinemas: sold to UGC in 1999 * Virgin Digital Help: technical support * Virgin Drinks: drink manufacturer ** Virgin Cola: carbonated cola soft drink ** Virgin Vodka: alcoholic beverage **

v-Mix Virgin Drinks was a company that marketed Virgin Cola and Virgin Vodka. It was a subsidiary of the Virgin Group owned by Richard Branson. The company was started in 1994 in conjunction with Cott to oversee and manage the product of Virgin C ...

: spirit mixers * Virgin Electronics: electronics retailer * Virgin Energy: joint venture energy provider *

Virgin Express N.V. Virgin Express S.A. was a Belgian airline created within the Virgin Group. It operated flights mainly to southern Europe from its hub at Brussels Airport. Ticket sales were mainly through the Internet. The airline merged with SN Brussels Ai ...

: airline based in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, merged with SN Brussels Airlines in 2006 to form Brussels Airlines * V Festival: British music festival sponsored by the Virgin Group *

V Festival (Australia) The Australian V Festival was an Australian music festival, and a spin-off of the British V Festival. Like all V Festivals, the event was primarily sponsored by Virgin Mobile. In Australia the event was also sponsored by airline Virgin Blue. T ...

: an Australian version of the V Festival *

Virgin Festival The Virgin Fest, known as the Virgin Mobile FreeFest in the United States, was a rock festival held in the United States and Canada, a spin-off from the V Festival held in the UK. In North America the Virgin name, and more recently the Virgin M ...

: a North American version of the V Festival * Virgin Films: film production company *

Virgin Games Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwoo ...

: sold to

Gamesys The Gamesys Group is an online software development and gaming business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by the U.S. casino operator, Bally's Corporation, in October 2021. History The company was founded in by An ...

in 2013 *

Virgin Green Fund Virgin Green Fund was established in 2007 to invest in companies in the renewable energy and resource efficiency sectors in the US and Europe. It closed in 2014. Investment history The fund's first fundraising round raised $199m from Virgin a ...

: shut down in 2014 *

Virgin Health Bank Precision Cellular Storage is a transport quality cord blood stem cell bank A cell bank is a facility that stores cells of specific genome for the purpose of future use in a product or medicinal needs. They often contain expansive amounts of base ...

: sold to

Qatar Foundation Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development ( ar, مؤسسة قطر) is a state-led non-profit organization in Qatar, founded in 1995 by then-emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his second wife Moza bint Nasser. Qatar Founda ...

Virgin Interactive Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwo ...

: Game Developer and publisher, bought by various companies, and renamed

Avalon Interactive Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwo ...

in 2003 * Virgin Limousines: a former

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a pr ...

service that operated mostly in the US and Canada. It operated for 14 years, until November 2010. *

(including

Virgin Mobile UK Virgin Mobile is a mobile phone service provider operating in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Virgin Media which is part of Virgin Media O2. The company was launched by Virgin Group in 1999 as the world's first mobile virtual network opera ...

): UK Cable TV, broadband internet and Fixed and Mobile telephony provider—bought by Liberty Global *

Virgin Mobile Australia Virgin Mobile is a wireless communications brand used by seven independent brand-licensees worldwide. Virgin Mobile branded wireless communications services are available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Kuwait, Saudi Ara ...

: mobile phone service provider in Australia—shares sold to

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singaporean telecommunications company Singte ...

in 2006 *

Virgin Mobile France Virgin Mobile France was a cellular telephone operator in France. It launched in 2006 as a joint venture between Virgin Group and Carphone Warehouse. The company operated as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), whereby it did not own or ope ...

: mobile phone service provider in France—shares sold to

Numericable-SFR SFR (; ''Société française du radiotéléphone'', ) is a French telecommunications company. As of December 2015, it had 21.9 million customers in Metropolitan France for mobile services, and provided 6.35 million households with high-spee ...

in 2014 * Virgin Mobile India: mobile phone service provider in India—shares sold to

Tata Teleservices Tata Tele Business Services Limited (TTBSL), formally known as Tata Tele Services Limited (TTSL), is an Indian broadband, telecommunications and cloud service provider based in Mumbai. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group, an Indian conglome ...

in 2015 *

Virgin Mobile USA Virgin Mobile USA was a no-contract Mobile Virtual Network Operator. It used Sprint's network for coverage. It licensed the Virgin Mobile brand from United Kingdom-based Virgin Group. Virgin Mobile USA was headquartered in Kansas City, Misso ...

: mobile phone service provider in the USA—shares sold to

Sprint Corporation Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before it merged with T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The ...

in 2009, ceased operations in 2020. *

Virgin Money Australia Virgin Money Australia is an Australian financial services company owned by Bank of Queensland, and has 150,000 customers. History Foundation In 2003, Virgin Money was launched in Australia with the launch of Virgin Money credit cards. Virgin ...

: sold to Bank of Queensland *

Virgin Money US Virgin Money US (formerly CircleLending) was a peer-to-peer loans and loan-servicing company which was for a short time part of Virgin Money. History Foundation CircleLending was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in May 2000 by Asheesh Ad ...

: sold in 2010 *

Virgin Nigeria Air Nigeria (originally Virgin Nigeria Airways, and then Nigerian Eagle Airlines) was the national flag carrier of Nigeria, which operated scheduled regional and domestic passenger services. The airline's base was Murtala Mohammed International ...

: national

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hi ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. ceased operations in 2012 * Virgin One account: shareholding sold to co-owner (RBS) in 2003 * Virgin Sun Airlines: scheduled and charter airline, closed in 2001 *

Virgin Play Virgin PLAY S.A. (Formerly Virgin Interactive España S.A.) was a Spanish video game distributor, and later a video game publisher. History In 1995, Virgin Interactive Entertainment opened up a Spanish subsidiary known as Virgin Interactive Espa� ...

: Spanish game distributor and publisher, filed for liquidation and closed in 2009 *

Virgin Plus Virgin Plus is a provider of postpaid and prepaid wireless voice, text and data communications services throughout Canada. They also offer home Internet and TV services in select areas of Ontario and Quebec. Launched as Virgin Mobile Canada o ...

: (formerly Virgin Mobile Canada) mobile phone service provider in Canada—shares sold to joint venture partner Bell Mobility in 2009 * Virgin Snow, 1986 joint venture with Bladon Lines Ski Vacations *

Virgin Trains ExpressCoach Virgin Trains ExpressCoach (formerly Virgin CoachLink) was a coach brand in England owned by the Virgin Rail Group. History As part of Virgin Rail Group's winning bid for the InterCity West Coast franchise, it committed to introducing coach ...

: former operator of inter-city bus & coach services (51%) *

Virgin CrossCountry Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in the United Kingdom operating the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Virgin CrossCountry operated some of the longest direct rail services in t ...

: former operator of the Cross Country

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

franchise in the United Kingdom, superseded by

Arriva CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) i ...

in 2007 (51%) *

Virgin EMI Records Virgin EMI Records was a British record label owned by the Universal Music Group that was formed in 2013. In June 2020, the label was rebranded as EMI Records, and operates Virgin Records as an imprint of the new EMI Records. History Virgin ...

: soundtrack label—owned by

: American music soundtrack label *

Virgin Racing Virgin Racing (subsequently Marussia Virgin Racing) was a Formula One racing team which was under management of Manor Motorsport, Wirth Research and Richard Branson's Virgin Group and competed in with a British licence and in with a Russian ...

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

motor racing team * Virginware: clothing retailer *

Virgin Wines Virgin Wines Online Limited, trading as Virgin Wines, is an online wine retailer based in the United Kingdom. The company was established in 2000 by Richard Branson's Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capit ...

: online wine market, sold to Direct Wines in 2005 *

Virgin Trains West Coast Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise fro ...

: train operating company on the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. Renewed franchise bid unsuccessful, superseded by

Avanti West Coast Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership franchise. During November 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the Inter ...

in December 2019 (51%) *

Virgin Trains East Coast Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) (legal name East Coast Main Line Company Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the N ...

: train operating company, supersed by London North Eastern Railway in June 2018 (10%) * Virgin Trains USA: train operating company between Miami and West Palm Beach, Florida. Branding deal launched in late 2018, ended in 2020. *Virgin Video (aka Virgin Vision): home video distributor, sold to Management Company Entertainment Group in 1989.

Controversies

The parent company, Virgin Group Holdings Ltd, is registered in the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

. Richard Branson and his family hold a £2.7 billion stake in this offshore, tax-free,

tax haven A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

company. The group's health business received significant media coverage over its legal battle with NHS groups. It sued

clinical commissioning group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integ ...

s (CCGs) in Surrey after it lost out on an £82 million contract to provide children's health services across the country. The NHS bodies settled out of court with a £328,000 payout to Virgin Care, resulting in some controversy. More than 100,000 people backed a petition calling on the company to stop "dragging the NHS through the courts". In 2019, it was discovered that cell phones being sold by Virgin subsidiary company

Assurance Wireless Assurance Wireless is a telephone service subsidized by the federal Lifeline Assistance program, a government benefit program supported by the federal Universal Service Fund. The service provides to low-income eligible people a free phone, fr ...

came with unremovable Chinese malware preinstalled.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Virgin Group Airline holding companies British brands British companies established in 1970 Companies based in London Conglomerate companies of the United Kingdom Holding companies established in 1970 Holding companies of the United Kingdom