Virgin Cars Ltd was an Internet automobile retailer started by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and co-founded by Ian Lancaster in May 2000 as part of the Virgin brand of companies. The speed at which the company was launched was perhaps the most startling aspect, going from drawing board to fully fledged company with logistics, purchase, finance, admin and web-based sales operations all being set up between December 1999 and May 2000 using Logica, the London-based IT services company.
Branson predicted the company would sell 24,000 cars in the first year with a £300m turnover. By October 2000, the company had sold over 2,000 cars, generating £30 million.
In 2001, the company started a subsidiary Virgin Bikes. The company only managed to sell 12,000 cars in total by 2003. Branson opened Virgin Cars' first showroom in Salford, Manchester in May 2003. It was located at the end of the M602 motorway near the A6 / A57.
The company stopped all operations and trading on 22 December 2005. The building which it occupied was stripped of all branding, and in 2008 the site became the new home of the Robins and Day Manchester Peugeot Dealership.
Famous quotes containing the words virgin and/or cars:
“But see, the Virgin blest
Hath laid her Babe to rest:
Time is our tedious song should here have ending;
Heaven’s youngest teemed star,
Hath fixed her polished car,
Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending;
And all about the courtly stable,
Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.”
—Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)