Virago Press is an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, which is owned by Hachette Livre.
Virago Press was founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil, primarily to publish books by women writers. In 1982 Virago became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chatto, Virago, Bodley Head, and Cape Group, but in 1987 Callil, Lennie Goodings, Ursula Owen, Alexandra Pringle, and Harriet Spicer put together a management buy-out from CVBC, then owned by Random House, USA. The buy-out was financed by Rothschild Ventures and Robert Gavron. Random House UK kept a ten per cent stake in the company, and continued to handle sales and distribution.
In 1993 Rothschild Ventures sold their shares to the directors and Gavron, who thus became the largest single shareholder. After a downturn in the market forced a reduction in activity, the board decided to sell the company to Little, Brown and Company, of which Virago became an imprint in 1996. In 2006, Virago's parent company became part of publishing group Hachette Livre.
