Virgin Megastores

Richard Branson started his first Virgin store on London's Oxford Street in 1971. In 1979, the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. Between the 1980s and 1990s, the chain grew, most notably through 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. During the early to mid 2000s Virgin Group decided to sell off most of its Virgin Megastores to various companies, including the French stores to the Lagardere Group and the American stores to Related Companies.

Zavvi

In September 2007 it was announced that the UK arm of the Virgin Megastores brand was to break away from the Virgin Group, in a management buy-out offer led by managing director Simon Douglas and finance director Steve Peckham.^[5]

EUK, of the Woolworths Group, was the main supplier of Zavvi under an exclusive supply deal. As a result of EUK entering into administration, on 24 December 2008, the entertainment retailer was also forced into administration as it was unable to source stock on favourable terms direct from suppliers.^[6] As a result of its administration Zavvi closed the majority of its 130 stores, with some sold to rival HMV, and some others to a new company, Head Entertainment.

Head Entertainment

Head Entertainment was formed on 2 February 2009 by Simon Douglas, former managing director of Zavvi, Mark Noonan, former Director of Trading of Zavvi and their business partner Les Whitfield. Les Whitfield also founded the entertainment retailer Impulse which he sold in July 2007.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 February, the day in which the final set of store closures was announced, Zavvi's administrators Ernst & Young sold 14 of the stores to HMV, and five to Head Entertainment.^[7] An additional two stores were purchased on 20 February 2009. A third additional store, the former Zavvi store at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway in Bristol was also going to be purchased, but the company was unable to reach an agreement with the landlord. The store was subsequently taken over by HMV who relocated from their former premises at Cribbs Causeway and employed some of the former Zavvi staff. All of the remaining stock which Zavvi owned was sold to Head Entertainment.^[7] It is thought^{[by whom?]} that the partners in Head paid less than 20p a unit for the Zavvi stock.^{[citation needed]}