Word: virginal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...past 20 months Virgin has gone into eight new businesses in eight completely different areas. "Lots of new excitement--and more is coming," Branson beams. "That's what I like." What attracts him to a new venture? "If it's something that interests me. If I think it is done badly by other people and feel I could do it better. If we can shake up an industry--and have fun doing it." He likes to start from scratch and build a new company his way. "An entrepreneur can go in and put his toe in the water...
When Branson sticks his toe in the U.S. cola market, he will find two competitors ready to smash it. Virgin Cola will sally forth in the U.S. first in the Philadelphia area. The U.S. needs another cola like it needs another celebrity talk show, but Virgin plans to undercut Coke and Pepsi on the shelf price yet offer more profit to retailers...
...Virgin is not expecting a kind welcome in the City of Brotherly Love. In Britain, where the company launched its cola 20 months ago, a May industry report gives Virgin just 4% of the market after a bruising battle with Pepsi, Coke and its British partner, Cadbury Schweppes. Although Virgin is a good marketer, distribution is critical--an area in which Branson met his master. For instance, Virgin was not able to get shelf space in half the British supermarkets--no small problem when four grocery chains control more than 60% of the market. The reason: Coke and Pepsi locked...
Branson is realistic about his cola challenge. "I suspect it will be in my children's lifetime--maybe even my grandchildren's --before Coke becomes second player to Virgin in America." Virgin at least won't be underdistributed in its first U.S. market: in Pennsylvania 500 Supervalue Beverage stores will peddle...
...Virgin's megastore expansion, on the other hand, reflects Branson's strength: an ability to take a consumer's experience to another level. The timing is terrible. Retail record sales in the U.S. slumped last year for the first time in a decade. Yet Duffell, the North American boss, says Virgin megastores are entertainment centers that will attract big audiences because they are so profoundly different. Certainly, calling Virgin a record store is understating the place drastically. The Times Square outlet boasts 250 listening posts and four Sony cinemas, inlaid-marble floors and an artist's replica of Michelangelo...