Virgin Records Ltd.

Record (holding) company operating since 28 February 1973. Licensee of the Virgin (aka Virgin Records) brands / labels. First-incorporated as "Varmerny Ltd." on 8 September 1972.

Founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, alongside Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and Tom Newman. Principal activities of the company and numerous subsidiaries include: record production, manufacturing, licensing, sound recording and exploitation of copyrights.

The company initially operated under the control of Virgin Records (Holdings) Ltd., later under renamed company Virgin Holdings Ltd. Due to the Virgin Group branching out internationally into other market sectors the conglomerate, Virgin Group Ltd. (later plc) was established in 1983, which became the immediate and ultimate parent. Virgin Group Plc operated as three principal divisions: Music, Communications, and Retail. In 1989 the group was demerged, with the music related companies, (which included Virgin Records Ltd. & its worldwide subsidiaries) being transferred to a newly-incorporated (holding) company, Glowtrack Ltd. In 1990 this holding company was renamed Virgin Music Group Ltd.

Principal subsidiaries at 30 June 1991: UK Associated Virgin Labels Ltd., Virgin Records (HK) Ltd., Virgin Music Publishers (Hong Kong) Ltd.

On 1 June 1992, Virgin Records Group Ltd. was sold by Richard Branson to Universal Music Group. On 25 April 2017 Bolloré Group became the ultimate parent. Today the Company remains an immediate subsidiary of Virgin Music Group (an unlimited entity), and is ultimately-owned by Universal Music Group N.V.

In the UK and most of Europe Virgin was distributed by EMI from 1 August 1992 and the EMI boxed catalogue numbering and barcode, price codes date from them. It was distributed in by BMG until 1 August 1993 and the Benelux nations until mid-1994.

Note:
The Virgin Enterprises Ltd., which licenses the rights to use these trademarks. This company did not form part of the sale to Thorn EMI plc.

Also appears as: Virgin Records Ltd / Virgin Records Limited / Virgin Records, Ltd. / Virgin Rec Ltd