industry wine founder virgin group headquarters norwich united kingdom area served uk key people jay wright products wine website www.virginwines.co.uk virgin wines is an online wine retailer based in the united kingdom . the company was established in 2000 by richard branson s virgin group and in 2005 was bought by direct wines . in november 2013 ceo jay wright and the management team supported by mobeus equity partners and connection capital provided a combined debt and equity package to support the 15.9 million management buy out . 1 history edit established under richard branson s virgin banner in 2000 virgin wines became a subsidiary of direct wines in 2005 . however virgin wines kept the virgin name . they continue to work closely with the virgin group . jay wright founder of warehouse wines became managing director of virgin wines in june 2008 . his arrival began a significant period of restructuring which included merging the warehouse wines brand with that of virgin wines . the merged company combined both businesses by capitalising upon virgin s presence in the online sector and warehouse wines mail order experience . in july 2013 virgin wines won the award for innovator of the year at the international wine challenge merchant of the year awards . 2 in november 2013 mobeus equity partners and connection capital provided a combined debt and equity package to support the 15.9 million management buy out of virgin wines from direct wines to make the company fully independent owned by its management team . 3 the virgin name was maintained and virgin wines continues to work with the virgin group . in 2015 virgin reported an increase in turnover for its main online business of 13 % in the year to 3 july the first full financial year following the management buy out . annual sales nudged 40 million and trading profit stood at 4.3 million 4 references edit mercer chris . direct wines sells virgin wines in 16m buyout . decanter . retrieved 18 december 2013 . goodman kate . virgin wines named innovator of the year . virgin.com . retrieved 18 december 2013 . monaghan angela . virgin wines uk business in 14m management buyout . the guardian . retrieved 18 december 2013 . huddleston nigel . virgin wines record 4.3 million trading profit . harpers . retrieved november 2015 . check date values in access date help external links edit official website v t e virgin group assets lifestyle active balloon flights books care casino experience days games gaming health bank pure voucher electric racing wines travel america atlantic vacations virgin australia holdings australia regional virgin samoa tigerair australia cruises galactic holidays travel city direct hotels chicago limited edition natirar necker roof gardens ulusaba limobike oceanic trains west coast east coast music megastores records virgin emi v festival money green fund money uk money australia media connect media ireland mobile uk virgin mobile australia canada chile france india poland south africa usa produced radio uk france canada toronto montreal vancouver calgary edmonton winnipeg london on italy dubai turkey jordan thailand virgin hitz eazy fm lebanon former comics festival north america festival australia heaven ou fm racing f1 radio ottawa uk radio classic groove xtreme v2 records virgin.net defunct brides cars charter cinemas digital digital help drinks cola vodka electronics energy express films interactive limousines little red megastores uk media television money us nigeria northern rock radio free sun trains crosscountry trains expresscoach vie virginware people richard branson nik powell other losing my virginity timeline of richard branson s business ventures unite charity virgin earth challenge ds virgin racing category commons retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title virgin wines & oldid 740681698 categories virgin groupwine retailers of the united kingdomhidden categories cs1 errors datespages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 22 september 2016 at 16 11 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view