NEW YORK, April 16 -- A new electric sign reading 'Virgin' has been added to the lights of Times Square, announcing the arrival of the world's largest record store and its British billionaire owner in the Big Apple. The Virgin Megastore which will open with fanfare next Tuesday is the first of three that Richard Branson, Virgin's founder and chairman, has planned for New York. It is Branson's sixth megastore in America, all of the others in California. Opening a store with 1,000 listening stations is something of a risk for the 45-year-old Branson, who has made and lost fortunes in his colorful career. He recently admitted in a CNN interview that the retail music industry is 'in dire straits' as the result of declining sales and profits worldwide. 'But if you create the best in anything, there's usually a market for it, and my Times Square store is the best,' said the bearded entrepreneur who obviously is challenging the supremacy of Tower Records in the retailing field. Tower has 130 stores nationally selling records, videos and books. Virgin Megastores are tourist attractions as well as thriving local businesses in every country where they are located. The three-story Times Square store, which boasts frescoes and marble columns, will have an unrivaled 75,000 square feet of space for selling recordings, software and books. On its facade there are two-thirds of a mile of red neon tubing spelling out the Virgin logo. Next to it are ads for Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Cola.
Machines just outside the record store entrance will dispense the soft drink, which is a serious challenger to Pespsi and Coca Cola in some parts of the world and accounts for 35 percentof cola sales in the United Kingdom. Record retailing, air travel and soft drinks are just some of the busineses which make up Branson's empire and gross about $3 billion annually. Virgin Atlantic has taken a bite out of British Airways' transatlantic business. In addition, Branson has jolted the staid British financial community with Virgin Direct, a discount brokerage similar to America's popular Charles Schwab. He runs Chunnel trains, owns a British radio station, and sells his own brand of vodka, but contrary to public perception, he does not own Virgin Records. Branson sold the records company to Thorn EMI in 1993 for a reported $1 billion, money he used to strengthen Virgin Atlantic. He retained the Virgin retailing operation which he has expanded to 12 countries and has plans for establishing stores in many more. After he opens the Times Square store he will proceed full steam ahead on two more Manhattan at Union Square and near Wall Street. All three will have Broadway addresses. Branson, son of a London barrister, started Virgin Records as a mail- order record business advertised in a student newspaper he edited at Stowe, an English private school. In 1971, he turned the business into a recording company with the Virgin label, which the British copyright office at first refused because of its sexual connotation. Within two years, Virgin had its first hit record, 'Tubular Bells' by Mike Oldfield, and made it big in 1977 by signing the Sex Pistols, England's hottest band, but the association foundered when the Pistols' Sid Vicious died. Virgin rebounded with Phil Collins. Branson currently is considering establishing another record label. The no-compete clause in sale of Virgin Records to EMI has expired and he is legally free to return to the recording business. 'We'll be making a decision in three or four months,' Branson said. 'I think there is room for a new major independent force. All the independent labels -- Island, A&M, Chrysalis, Motown, Virgin -- have been effectively gobbled up by the majors. 'A lot of artists have said to me that they would like to have a smaller label with more concentration on their product. But having done it once and building something quite special, I wouldn't want to do it again and not build something equally as special.'
