Virgin Group Ltd is a conglomeration of separately run companies that each use the Virgin brand of British celebrity 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.
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 Radio (now part of SMG plc) and Virgin Music (now part of EMI). With a few exceptions, all of the companies began as wholly owned Virgin subsidiaries.
Revenue US$20 billion (2006)1
Employees 35,000
Website www.virgin.com
Type Private (Limited liability)
Founded Flag of the United Kingdom UK (Incorporation: 1989)
Headquarters London, England, UK
Key people Richard Branson, Chairman
Stephen Murphy, CEO
Susannah Parden, CFO