Malu Cursino and Simon Browning
BBC News
Getty images
Wh Smith is in talks to sell his street stores, said the British retailer.
The firm said that it “explored potential strategic options for this profitable and generative group of the group, including a possible sale”, in a press release on Saturday.
He continued by saying that in the last decade, the company had become “a targeted world trip”, his travel arm having more than 1,200 stores in 32 countries.
The announcement comes in the middle of a difficult economic perspective for street retailers and after years of feeling unfavorable to consumers towards the chain.
The first of the 520 High Street stores in Wh Smith opened its doors over 230 years ago, operating as a new seller. He has since become a large street and travel retailer.
The commercial side of the retail sale of Wh Smith – which operates from airports, stations and hospitals – now represents more than 85% of its profits. The street sector constitutes the rest.
The retailer said that there was “no certainty that an agreement would be concluded”, but added that he would provide updates to the possible sale.
Wh Smith was valued at 1.5 billion pounds sterling when business closed on Friday. This figure represents the value of the whole group.
Catherine Shuttleworth, retail analyst of consumers at Savvy Marketing, said that purchasing behavior in the United Kingdom had “radically changed”, reducing reasons to visit stores like Wh Smith.
“Most of us read our news online and not in magazines and newspapers, we download books and send birthday cards via online operators,” she said.
The emphasis on a company like Wh Smith was now “in stores in high areas such as airports, stations and hospitals,” added MS Shuttleworth.
For years, the high street in the United Kingdom has experienced a change of makeup, with flagship retailers such as Wilko Bust due to a discrepancy between the cost of business maintenance and the amount of income stores.
The retail consultant Richard Hyman said that the news on Saturday “does not surprise” because the High Street stores of Wh Smith were “sub-performatives for many years” when he became increasingly difficult.
The retail specialist stressed that WH Smith is not the only one, pointing to the disappearance of other big retail names, such as Debenhams and Woolworths.
Commenting on the future of Wh Smith, Mr. Hyman said he was “still to fall on anyone in a retail management team who thinks that the result is something other than dark”.
EPA
The vast majority of the benefits of Wh Smith come from its retail branch for travel
The revenues of the High Street stores in Wh Smith fell 17 million pounds sterling in 2024 compared to the previous year, but the profits remained the same after the closing of the company 14 of its stores last year.
Its High Street stores have also been obviously seen by consumers.
In 2019, one who? The survey revealed that Wh Smith ranked the lowest among street retailers – the ninth consecutive year, it appeared in the two lower points – with buyers describing the stationery specialist as “cramped and messy”.
Nicholas noted, from the retailing economy research consulting company, said potential buyers could see opportunities to “restructure and reinvent the presence of rue de la Haute”, although in a “climate difficult”.
Explaining after the most recent financial results of Wh Smith, the Group’s Directorate, Carl Cowling, said: “Our British company High Street continued to deliver its space management strategy to maximize yields and the maintenance of a flexible cost structure. “
He cited the opening of dozens of R US “shop-in-shops” toys in the second half of 2024 as an example of that. Toys R Us went bankrupt in 2018 and an agreement was concluded with Wh Smith to accommodate concession stands.
Mr. Cowling told the BBC in 2023 that the retailer would no longer open street stores in the United Kingdom. Instead, he would focus on British airports and stations, as well as the opening of stores in the United States and Europe.
Mr. Found said it was clear that Wh Smith had “strategically pivoted” to the “fast -growing” travel trade. The effort of his street business, he added, would allow him to focus entirely on this new direction.
