Virgin Megastore Dubai

[Dallas Themshirts]

In1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road.[1] The company expanded to hundreds of stores worldwide in the 1990s, but lost a large number of stores during the 2010s, largely with the sale and eventual closing of the European, North American, Australian, Japanese and Chinese stores. By 2015, it operated only in the Middle East and in North Africa.[2]

Richard Branson and Nik Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin Records and Tapes on Notting Hill Gate, London, specialising particularly in "krautrock" imports, and offering bean bags and free vegetarian food for the benefit of customers listening to the music on offer.[3] After making the shop into a success, they turned their business into a fully fledged record label, Virgin Records. The name Virgin, according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from a colleague of his when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin, as they were all new to business, like "virgins". The first release on the label was the progressive rock album Tubular Bells by multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield in 1973.

Like many of Branson's Virgin brands, Virgin Megastores is not wholly owned by the Virgin Group. During the early to mid-2000s Virgin Group decided to sell off most of its Virgin Megastores to various companies, including the Lagardere Group. By 2001 the Virgin Megastores worldwide were split between the Virgin Group and the Lagardre Group.[5] The Virgin Group kept the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States and Japan outlets while the Lagardre Group obtained the shops in France and travel retail locations globally including Australia, China, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Greece, Italy, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.[6]

Virgin Megastores in the Middle East currently trades as V Star Multimedia LLC.[7] Culture Convenience Club owns what was Virgin Megastores Japan, which have since been rebranded as Tsutaya. The Australian Virgin Megastores and Virgin at Myer concept stores were operated by Brazin Limited.[8] (Sanity Entertainment after 2009) until all were closed in 2010; Brazin also ran local HMV outlets, in addition to their own Sanity brand. In December 2007 Butler Capital Partners announced their intention to mount a majority takeover of the French arm of Virgin from Lagardre. This deal was finalised in February 2008.[9]

In 2007 the real estate company Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust acquired Virgin Megastores North America.[10] Related and Vornado were the landlords for the two most profitable stores in the United States and those stores were profitable because they had long-term leases in which rents were locked in at an extremely low rate. Both real estate companies wanted to break the leases and replace Virgin with new tenants that were willing to pay the then current higher rental rates that would make an entertainment retail business unprofitable.[11] They have since decided to close all the American stores.

Virgin shops have a wide selection of CDs, games, books, DVDs, vinyl records, magazines, portable media players, accessories and additional products such as calendars, board games and Virgin branded items. Larger stores also stock electronic equipment and computer peripherals. Not all of these product categories are stocked by all Virgin shops, though the larger stores do generally stock the full product range.

In 2003, all US Stores increased their focus on multiple fashion categories[18] spanning Pop culture, Street, Urban, Movie & TV to complement the music, DVD and video games offers. Virgin Mobile products can also be found in separately run Virgin Mobile Concessions within most Virgin Megastores.[19][20] Some shops also house cafes or coffee shops run by external companies.[21]

In 2005, Virgin Digital was launched to cater for those that bought their music digitally or wanted to rip and burn their current music collection. This is designed to add to the services provided by Virgin, rather than replace the Megastores.[22] The download service faced some criticism from consumer groups due to its incompatibility with the popular iPod music player. The service has since been discontinued.[23] Around the world there were other Virgin branded digital music retail websites, such as VirginMega.fr, France's number 2 music download website.

There were 35 Virgin Megastores in France. Twelve additional stores in France were branded Furet du Nord, and about ten international stores were owned by the same company. The French Megastore business was launched in 1988 by Branson and Patrick Zelnick, CEO of music publisher Nave.

In July 2012, LS Travel Retail announced that they will phase out the Virgin Entertainment brand in France, commencing 2013, converting all remaining Virgin travel outlets into larger sized Fnac formats stocking the same range in addition to more product lines.[27][28]

In January 2013, Virgin Megastore France filed for bankruptcy. At that time there were 26 Megastores in France, employing 1,000 people, after two years of cutting over 200 staff and several shops. The company had taken steps to terminate the lease on its flagship Champs-lyses store in Paris after 25 years on the famous avenue.[29][30][31] In June 2013 the company was finally liquidated and ceased operations after 25 years.[32]

The Virgin name is used by the Lagardre Group to brand a small number of convenience stores within airports and railway stations. In September 2019 there were seven Virgin shops, of which four are in or adjacent to Frankfurt airport.[34]

In 1996, local merchandising group Fotex opened the first and only Hungarian Virgin Megastore (1000 m2) in the first "western" shopping mall, Duna Plaza, in Budapest.[36][37] It was operated under a franchise until 2000. Between 2001 and 2006, Fotex operated the store as "Hungaroton Gigastore". The shop was closed in 2006 and no more Virgin Megastore shops were opened in Hungary.[citation needed]

Virgin Megastores opened its first store in the Republic of Ireland in Dublin in 1986.[38] More stores opened in Ireland from the early 1990s including Cork City.[39] The company had planned to launch an online store specifically for the Republic of Ireland at virginmegastores.ie however plans were shelved when its Irish operations were sold in 2007. At its height of success the company owned 6 stores in the Republic of Ireland, however, by 2002 stores began to close.[40] The Virgin Group sought to sell its Irish operations during 2007, and on 17 September 2007, it was announced Irish and UK stores would separate from the Virgin Group. A management buy-out offer was accepted.[41] Stores were rebranded as Zavvi.

Following the collapse of Zavvi's supplier in December 2008, stores in Ireland were immediately closed in January 2009 with the hope Irish stores could be sold to another buyer unfortunately all were closed with some taken over by other music retailers.[42]

In February 2004, the Virgin Megastore in Piazza Duomo Milan closed.[43] Currently this building is occupied by a Mondadori retail store.[citation needed] After the Italian franchise Virgin Retail Italy filed for bankruptcy and liquidation, the Italian bankruptcy court ordered in May 2004 the immediate closure of three out of four of the remaining stores while allowing the store in Bergamo to remain open for a few additional months to allow the company to depose of its remaining inventory.[44]

Virgin Megastores entered the Dutch market in the 1990s and operated four stores (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Maastricht). In 2000, it decided to exit the market. Three stores were sold to the Free Record Shop group, while the Maastricht branch was closed. Free Record Shop also acquired three Virgin Megastores in Belgium.[45][46]

Virgin Retail Espaa, S.L. opened its Barcelona store in November 1992, just after the Barcelona Olympics. This opening was followed by another Megastore in Seville[47] (1993) however the opening of a flagship store in Madrid eluded the retailer, because at that time, cinemas and theatres in the Gran Va (Madrid's most popular commercial thoroughfare) could not easily be reassigned for commercial use. The Spanish company diversified by opening small outlets in busy Spanish and Portuguese airports. In 1994, Virgin Retail Espaa reached an agreement with the department store chain Galeras Preciados and opened small concessions in their Madrid stores (Callao, Goya, Serrano, La Vaguada and Parquesur). Galeras Preciados ceased trading the following year and Virgin Retail Espaa quickly re-organised its operations and opened medium-sized stores in ABC Serrano (Madrid), La Corua, Vigo,[48] Mlaga, Bilbao and Santander. Larger stores followed in Portugal (Lisbon and Oporto) but by 1997 the impact of digital technology had already hit their distribution model very hard. Music was by then being traded freely on the Internet but the major music labels did little to help support high street retailers. Inevitably, the Virgin Retail Group took the difficult strategic decision to close all of Virgin's high street stores in southern Europe. In July 1998 Virgin Megastores closed its southern European flagship store in Barcelona[49] on the corner of Passeig de Grcia and Gran Va de les Corts Catalans. This building is currently occupied by Zara clothes store.[citation needed]

The first Virgin Megastore opened in the United Kingdom in 1979 and between the 1980s and 1990s, the chain grew, including via its merger with Our Price whilst under the ownership of WH Smith. By the 1990s Virgin Megastores had become an international franchise as part of the Virgin Group.

The Virgin Group sought to sell its UK and Ireland stores during 2007, and on 17 September 2007, it was announced that the UK and Ireland arm of the Virgin Megastores brand was to break away from the Virgin Group. A management buy-out offer was accepted.[50] Stores were rebranded as Zavvi.

Following the collapse of Woolworths, which owned Zavvi's supplier Entertainment UK, Zavvi entered administration on 24 December 2008 as it had been unable to source stock from other suppliers under favourable terms.[51] By February 2009 Zavvi had closed its stores, selling some to rival HMV, and a few to Simon Douglas and Les Whitfield's Head Entertainment.

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