Virgin – the mythical brand created in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson – arrived in France in 1980 in the form of its record label searching for fresh talent.

In 1988 Virgin surprises everyone and breaks new ground by opening the largest music store in the world on the Champs Elysées in the prestigious setting of a former bank: the Virgin Megastore. The store of over 5000m² immediately generated unprecedented footfall attracting music lovers from even beyond French borders and quickly became the place in Paris for product launches from the world of entertainment.

Innovative and anti-conformist by nature, Virgin Megastore wore its heart on its sleeve in its quest to promote unrivalled access to popular culture, leading the way in many symbolic battles on the high-street: Sunday opening (never before seen in France), reducing the rate of V.A.T. on music promotional campaigns, unprecedented discounts on book products, Gay & Lesbian sections in store, not to mention the creation of the largest Manga section within France.

This innovative spirit can still be seen in the choice of territories abroad where Virgin Megastore has established businesses, opening the first large-scale stores for cultural products some ten years ago in Lebanon and Dubai and more recently the largest store of its kind in Morocco.

Today Virgin Megastore has expanded its presence to some 35 stores throughout France and has developed a chain of 20 Virgin Megastores under licence abroad.

Accompanying the trends in the entertainment market for over 20 years, Virgin Megastore today offers 5 families of product: Music, Video, Video games, Books and Stationery, and Electronics. Added to these main groups, which constitute the heart of the product offer, are ticketing services, original gift ideas, cult and trend items as well as press and Virgin Cafés in certain stores.

Virgin Megastore is first and foremost a place for discovery and escape where the abundance of the product offer is paced by the number of new releases that arrive in store every day. Over 1000 new book titles and 800 CD’s hit the shelves every month. To make it easier for our customers to discover and choose from such a vast universe of product, the passionate Virgin Megastore staff have one aim above all others: to interact with the customer to share their passion as well as organising regular signing sessions and mini concerts (over 365 events a year up and down the chain of stores).

Virgin is also present on the web at virginmega.fr, where customers can download music, films, mobile jingles and press as well as develop photos and purchase concert tickets. With over 5 million music titles and 30 000 movies, music videos and documentaries, the site is today the 2^nd largest in the market. And there are 8000 more titles added every week!