That Virgin is the KING of "market extensions."

Record store. Recording studio. Record label.

I believe there is a Virgin Haulage - probably originally created for the distribution of the records and other Virgin related businesses - such as moving food to the Virgin aircraft, and moving Virgin cola around.

So Virgin's business approach could be... whatever our business spends money on is a business we would be well advised to own. Thus we get to keep more of our money PLUS have a business which can be profitable in its own right.

That would be similar to a cleaning business buying a cleaning supply business, and a cleaning equipment repair business, and a cleaning training business.

Or your vacation tour business owning a few buses, restaurants, motel/hotel, duty free store and other stuff holiday makers spend money on. So ultimately your businesses: book the tour (like a travel agent), conduct the tour in buses they own, and take the tourists to shops and sights they also own. The Japanese do this kind of market-extension all over the place.

Michael Ross