Virgin has put paid to any suggestion it will return to High Street retail, after Sir Richard Branson ‘inherited’ seven Zavvi stores this week.

MCV can reveal that Branson still holds the leases on Zavvi’s flagship Tottenham Court Road store, the chain’s biggest store in Birmingham and five other retail sites.

But despite speculation that Branson would use the sites to bring back Virgin Megastores after 16 months away from the High Street, a Virgin spokesperson told MCV:

“We made a conscious effort to get out of High Street retail a couple of years ago and nothing’s changed. We won’t go back. We’ll sub-let these stores to somebody else.”