the first Virgin business was record sales, but Branson built his global brand by making sure that he not only owned the music stores, but the studio where the bands recorded, and the record label that represented them. Now he was applying the same logic to his airlines. Why pay Shell and Exxon to power Virgin planes and trains when Virgin could invent its own transport fuel? If it worked, the gambit would not only turn Branson into an environmental hero but also make him a whole lot richer. So the first tranche of money Branson diverted from his transportation divisions went to launch a new
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