The company was relaunched as Vie at Home as the Virgin Group had paid £8.8 million to remove the Virgin name, and written off £21 million in loans.
(meta data) TITLE: Richard Branson failures unmasked | News | EN for Business (meta data) COPYRIGHT: Copyright 2006- Excel Publishing Company Limited 5 captures 02 Apr 2011 - 07 Jun 2011 About this capture COLLECTED BY Organization: Alexa Crawls Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. Collection: Alexa Crawls Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20110607151823/http://www.enforbusiness.com:80/news/richard-branson-failures-unmasked-20091512 Skip to content ### User login Username: * Password: * Create new account Request new password ## Entrepreneurs Panel Home » News # Richard Branson failures unmasked The failures of three of Sir Richard Branson's companies have been revealed. According to reports in the Times Sir Richard accumulated operating losses of more than £300 million from the Virgin Megastores retail business. The 125 UK stores were sold two years ago to Zavvi, which went into administration at the end of 2008. Virgin Holdings, a company that owns a number of Sir Richard's businesses, submitted its accounts for the year to the end of March 2008 only last week and they reveal the full extent of the Megastore losses. The accounts show that the company's profits plummeted from £151.7 million in 2007 to a loss of £227.3 million after being hit with a one-off operating loss of £324.3 million. A Virgin Group spokesman told the Times that this was because of losses accumulated over many years at the Megastores, which were formally written off when the business was sold. Virgin Holdings, which includes Sir Richard's profitable rail and airline businesses, wrote off nearly £21 million when it sold Virgin Vie cosmetics to a management buyout. It paid a further £8.8 million to remove the Virgin name from the company. Meanwhile, accounts for Barfair, another Virgin holding company, reveal that the assets of Virgin Bride were sold for only £1 after the closure of its last store in Manchester. ##### Permalink Richard Branson Printer-friendly version #### Well fit Thinking of refurbishing your office? Or moving into a new shell? EN asks what you need to know about office fit-outs. #### Break for cover Believe it or not, and despite storm clouds threatening, the market for insurance could be a lot worse. EN explains. #### Buying a business Considering buying a business? EN presents ten things to think about beforehand #### The end of the innocence With the Bribery Act set to come into force in July, has the Government's final guide to compliance allayed fears over the legislation? #### Cruise line Keeping the toffs from fighting with the oiky entrepreneurs after dinner is far from the only challenge involved in running a cruise line. EN examines the real Plimsoll line... #### Amanda Lyne Amanda Lyne's company, ACAL Energy, hit the headlines earlier this year when it received a £1 million grant from government agency the Carbon Trust to fund the development of its cell system which, if it comes to fruition, holds out the hope of replacing traditional car engines with an alternative that runs on air and hydrogen. More Five Minute Interviews #### Charles Hunt His old business was goosed but the founder of Duvet and Pillow Warehouse didn't let that get him down. Kirsty Hewitt emerges from under her polyester quilt as Charles Hunt reveals... More Best Deals ## Venue Finder #### Hilton London Metropole Find Venues Search this site:
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Vie at Home
History.
The licence covered Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Korea, India and China. Virgin Vie Spa Treatment Rooms opened in Cape Town, South Africa in February 2002. By October 2002, Virgin Cosmetics employed around 7,000 consultants. The company withdrew from the Asian market in April 2003, closing all nine stores in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. Virgin Cosmetics began to open factory outlets across the UK in September 2003. In September 2005, the company launched in South Africa, recruiting over 1000 consultants in 12 months. The company was rebranded as Virgin Vie at Home in September 2006. It launched a direct selling business in the United Arab Emirates in December 2006. 
 In January 2009, Virgin Vie At Home was sold in a management buyout to Ratan Daryani and Ros Simmons.