A Virgin Megastore employee holds a sign reading ‘Unemployment, it’s now’ during a demonstration against planned job cuts at the entrance of the store in Strasbourg, eastern France.
AFP/Paris
Entertainment retailer Virgin France filed officially for bankruptcy yesterday after becoming the latest victim of consumers shifting to buying digital music and video.
A judicial source confirmed the company had made the filing, after it said on Tuesday that it would declare insolvency.
The Paris Commercial Court will now decide whether the firm should pursue a recovery plan or be put into liquidation.
The seller of CDs and DVDs employs 1,000 workers and operates 26 stores in France, including its flagship Virgin Megastore on the Avenue des Champs Elysees in Paris.
But it has suffered losses for several years and struggled under the weight of a costly lease at the Champs Elysees location.
Several hundred employees rallied outside the Champs Elysees branch yesterday, calling for the company’s majority shareholder, French investment firm Butler Capital Partners, to invest more to keep Virgin France alive.
Sources close to the investment firm said it had already invested 15mn euros ($19.5mn) in the company.
Butler Capital Partners owns 74% of Virgin France after buying a controlling stake from media conglomerate Lagardere in 2007, which purchased the company from British businessman Richard Branson’s Virgin Group in 2001.