Virgin Group relaunches Internet site

New retail division

Virgin Group relaunches Internet site

Report by JEREMYSKIDMORE

VIRGIN Group has relaunched its Web site under a new retail division after deciding its Internet site was not going to generate enough bookings on its own.

Virgin Travelstore will sell package holidays and independent travel through its Web site, Teletext, digital TV, 120 Virgin V shops and even some of its Virgin megastores.

Managing director Ed Sims, who has taken over from Ian Brooks, admitted the public’s reluctance to fully embrace the Internet had influenced itsdecision.

“The fact Internet bookings have been slow has made us change,” he said.

“While this is the case, we must have a conventional retailer and we must be multi-channelled.”

Sims also admitted that Thomson and Airtours were reluctant to give Virgin their products to sell only on virgin.com. “They were sensitive about working with just a dot-com business,” he said.

Sims said Virgin Travelstore had signed up all the major tour operators and although it would sell Virgin Sun, claimed the retailer would not be directionally selling.

“We will have preferential suppliers but we will be judged on profitability, not on whether we shift in-house product,” he said.

Virgin Travelstore will also offer travel suppliers third-party relationships with other Virgin Group products like Virgin Wine and Virgin Active.

Virgin’s current teletext and Web-based business, packageholidaysdirect.com, has sold 27,000 holidays to date. It will be rebranded to virgintravelstore.com before Christmas.

Sims: the fact Internet bookings have been quite slow has led to Virgin relaunching its Web site