Kinko’s to Enter Virgin (Group) Territory--Britain

Kinko’s Inc., that purveyor of round-the-clock instant photocopy-and-fax gratification, is invading the land of tea and crumpets with the help of flamboyant British entrepreneur Richard Branson.

Branson’s Virgin Group and Ventura-based Kinko’s on Monday announced a joint venture to open a Kinko’s outlet in London by the end of the year. A second London location will follow in the first quarter of 1998, and others--perhaps as many as 200--will begin appearing throughout Britain, with an option to enter France.

No financial details were disclosed by the two privately held companies, which said they will be equal partners in the venture.

Kinko’s currently operates about 850 branches, including about 20 outside the United States in Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Branson, whose Virgin Group operates in such disparate businesses as music retailing and airlines, said Britain “has waited far too long for office services founded on the principles of quality, value for money and innovation.”

“I am delighted that, at last, smaller companies in the U.K. will have access to the extensive business facilities normally only available to a global corporation,” Branson said.

From a single copy shop in the back of a hamburger stand near UC Santa Barbara in 1970, the Kinko’s chain (named after the red, curly hair of founder Paul Orfalea) has papered the nation with its office-away-from-home outlets by combining such services as photocopying, computer rentals, color printing, videoconferencing, Internet access, binding and overnight mail drop-off, pickup and delivery.

The British branches will look like those in the United States, but will also carry some of Virgin’s many projects, Kinko’s spokeswoman Laura McCormick said. The partners are also investigating establishing Kinko’s locations within Virgin’s network of airline and rail terminals to tap business travelers.

“The 24-hour concept is going to be quite new for London,” McCormick said. “There’s nothing like it.”

But Britain is ready for this “particularly American” idea, “with the economic and business high that Britain is in currently,” said Dennis Storer, executive director of the British-American Chamber of Commerce & Business Council, a Santa Monica-based organization that promotes trade.

“Enormous changes have occurred,” Storer said. “The classic British three-hour lunch is gone. . . . New methods, technology and, in terms of business, ideas are being practiced there.”

Virgin Group was founded in 1970 as a music retailer and has since expanded into leisure, media, entertainment, retailing, air transport, rail, consumer goods and financial services.