WH Smith revenues soar by 41 per cent as business bounces back from pandemic
Newsagent WH Smith has continued to bounce back from the pandemic with revenues soaring by 41 per cent.
The firm, which has its headquarters in Swindon, saw revenues increase by 41 per cent to £859m. As a result profits before tax rose to £45m from £14m in the previous year.
The high street business made a profit of £24m – a fall of £2m on the previous year – according to its interim results
Much of the success has been driven by the company’s global travel business and 60 new stores were opened this year including 11 in Canada.
WH Smith is planning to open 120 new stores in the coming year including 60 in North America.
The company added that it has seen a strong start to the second half with trading momentum continuing ahead of peak summer period
Group chief executive Carl Cowling said: “We have seen a strong performance in the first half of the year further strengthening our confidence in the prospects of our global travel business.
“We expect Travel to represent over 70 per cent of group revenue and around 85 per cent of group profit from trading operations by the end of this financial year.
“In North America, we continue to open new stores with 29 opened in the period and these are performing well.
“At the same time, we have grown our new store pipeline with significant tender wins. We have won a further 28 stores so far this year, including 11 in Canada across Calgary and Edmonton airports. In the current financial year, we expect this division to generate over £50m profit – making it our second largest division.
“Travel UK, our largest division, has delivered a strong first half performance and has excellent growth prospects. Revenues are 19 per cent ahead of 2019 levels despite passenger numbers being considerably below 2019 levels. This performance has been driven by our category expansion, focus on average transaction value, the success of InMotion and our travel essentials one-stop-shop format.”
He added: “I am increasingly excited by the opportunity in our Rest of the World division. Our strategy of establishing a presence in multiple countries as a base for significant growth is demonstrated well by the growth in our store estates in Spain, Germany and Australia.
“This set of results would not be possible without the fantastic efforts of our entire team and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.
“Looking ahead, we are very well positioned to capitalise on the substantial growth drivers across our markets and we expect to make further good progress in the years ahead. Current trading is strong and we are ahead of expectations for the full year.”
