COMPANY NEWS; BRANSON SAYS VIRGIN WILL LAUNCH A COLA Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin Atlantic Airways,

said yesterday that he planned to introduce a Virgin brand cola in Britain and the United States. "If all goes according to plan, I would expect that Virgin Cola Company will be as big as Virgin Atlantic airlines within about four years," Mr. Branson told British television news reporters yesterday. Virgin Cola will be produced by the Cott Corporation of Canada at Cott's factory in Britain. Mr. Branson said the new cola and a diet version would be in stores by the end of the month. October 11, 1994 RICHARD BRANSON, the brash chairman of the Virgin Group and Virgin Atlantic Airways, is borrowing a page from the playbook of Victor Kiam, the bombastic Remington shaver titan: Mr. Branson likes his new agency so much he's buying part of it. The agency in which Mr. Branson is taking a minority stake is CMG Communications, a New York shop that three longtime advertising, marketing and media executives founded in July with billings estimated at $15 million. The terms of the agreement are not being disclosed, but Virgin is acquiring what is expected to be a 15 percent stake in the agency, which for the last four months has handled the direct-response and design portions of Virgin Atlantic's United States account with billings estimated at $2 million. Now, Virgin Atlantic is assigning CMG the rest of its account in this country, including the advertising duties, with billings estimated at $8 million. Those responsibilities had been handled by Korey, Kay & Partners in New York since 1984, when Virgin Atlantic started. The switch is effective in early March. December 8, 1994

Virgin Group Bidding for MGM Theaters The Virgin Group confirmed today that it had submitted a bid for the MGM movie-theater chain being sold by the troubled French bank Credit Lyonnais. "We have put an offer in for the MGM cinemas in Britain," said Will Whitehorn, a Virgin Group spokesman. "The offer includes the multiplexes, but it doesn't include the head office or anything overseas. MGM has theaters in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark. Mr. Whitehorn said that Virgin, owned by Richard Branson, had been approached by the London entrepreneurs Luke Johnson and Hugh Osmond. March 20, 1995 Virgin Cola, the upstart British soft-drink company started three years ago by the music industry and airline executive Richard Branson, plans a plunge into the crowded and hostile American beverage market starting today. Perhaps fittingly, Mr. Branson plans to ride down Fifth Avenue in a vintage Army tank. The move coincides with one of the more intense moments in cola war history. Last week, Pepsico Inc. sued the Coca-Cola Company, contending Coke illegally manipulated food-service distributors, which provide beverages and other supplies to restaurants, theaters and other public places, to prevent them from selling Pepsi products. Coke has said the lawsuit has no merit and vowed to defend itself. ''Launching a cola in the United States against Coke and Pepsi is a daunting challenge, not for the faint of heart,'' said John D. Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, an industry newsletter. ''Coke and Pepsi dominate this market. Probably as important as the power of their brands is the power of their bottling systems, which provide them with incredibly pervasive distribution. It's always interesting to see a new contender.''

In an interview last week, Mr. Branson said he had no illusions that trying to make inroads with a competing cola would be easy. ''It's certainly challenging to take on a company like Coke,'' he said. ''The message we have to get across to retailers is, look what's happened in Britain. Pepsi and Coke are giving them deals all the time. The number of retailers stocking Virgin Cola have increased month by month.'' Mr. Branson said Virgin Cola would be sold for about 10 percent less than Coke and Pepsi to retailers, ''and if they pass it on to the consumer, we'd welcome that.'' As for volume, he plans to start small. ''You don't have to build a large market share to be profitable in the U.S.,'' he said. Alexis Dormandy, Virgin Cola's executive vice president, said the initial goal was small. ''We wouldn't even be looking at a 1 percent share,'' he said. ''Our first aim is just to build the brand, and once you've got that going, you build the volume off of that.'' Much of the focus at first will be convenience stores, where consumers can buy the product chilled. Cans are decorated with photographs of ''real people,'' with their names and the date they switched from other colas. ''You say something about yourself by not drinking Coke or Pepsi,'' said Gary Keimach, vice president of Venture Beverage, a company that will be distributing Virgin Cola in Massachusetts. ''You're willing to be different.'' Coke and Pepsi said they welcomed the competition. ''But the fact is,'' said John Harris, a Pepsi spokesman, ''the U.S. soft drink market is not virgin territory.' May 12, 1998

Virgin Cola was set up during the early 1990s in conjunction with Cott, a Canadian company that specializes in bottling own-label drinks. Cott were looking for a major international brand that could have global appeal. Virgin Cola was first released in 1994, to compete with Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Shortly thereafter, Pepsi changed the color of its cans to blue. When Virgin learned about this they famously took out a full page advert in many newspapers on April Fools Day claiming that they developed a new can that turns blue when the cola inside is flat. Virgin Colas plastic 1-liter bottles shape is reputedly modeled after the body of then-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson. Virgin conducted blind testing at many schools across the UK, and concluded that many people preferred the taste of Virgin Cola to Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Within a few months of its release, Virgin Cola had a 50% market share in the outlets that sold it. It went on to be launched in France, Belgium, and South Africa. In its first year more than 500 million units were sold worldwide. However, its popularity soon waned. Today, Virgin Cola is most commonly found in pound shops. It is also sold in the shops on Virgin trains.