525 (High Street) 580 (UK Travel) 600 (International Travel)[a][2]
Key people
Henry Staunton (Chairman) Carl Cowling (CEO)
Revenue
£1,793 million (2023)[2]
Operating income
£182 million (2023)[2]
Net income
£88 million (2023)[2]
Number of employees
14,177 (2023)[2]
Website
Consumer Corporate
Footnotes / references [3][4]
WH Smith PLC, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.
The company was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. It was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier.[5]
WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
^ ab"WH Smith plc overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 10 August 2004. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
^ abcde"Annual Report 2023" (PDF). W. H. Smith. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
^"WH Smith PLC overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 10 August 2004. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
^"Terms of Use". WH Smith PLC. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
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WH Smith PLC, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer,...
The company, originally established as "WHSmith News", was renamed Smiths News PLC on its demerger from WHSmith on 1 September 2006. In April 2014, the...
news-stands at railway stations beginning in 1848. The firm, now called WHSmith, had more than 1,400 locations as of 2017. In the U.S., chain stores likely...
numbers to identify books. In 1965, British bookseller and stationers WHSmith announced plans to implement a standard numbering system for its books...
have previously been owned by The Entertainer, and are currently owned by WHSmith. Jonathan Elvidge founded the chain in 1991. The ideology behind the chain...
inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award (1999), and the WHSmith book of the year (2006), among others. In 2000, Harry Potter and the Prisoner...
Booksellers Koorong Queensland Book Depot The Co-op Bookshop - defunct WHSmith Livraria Cultura Archambault Book City Chapters Coles Indigo Books and...
name was bought by WHSmith. Past Times' website was taken down following the purchase. John Richard Beale, 1944-2024. "WHSmith's acquisition of Past...
was named, the bookseller expanded rapidly until being sold in 1993 to WHSmith. In 1998, Waterstones was bought by a consortium of Waterstone, EMI and...
closed, 70 of which were sold to WHSmith. This followed a trial of six Post Office outlets in WHSmith stores. WHSmith was expected to make up to £2.5 million...
Patheon, Catalent (formerly known as Cardinal Health), Becton-Dickinson, WHSmith, Early Learning Centre and Nationwide, with Dyson located in nearby Malmesbury...
Homecentres. In 1978, the business was acquired by WHSmith and renamed W.H. Smith Do It All Limited, trading as WHSmith Do It All. Do It All sold a range of over...
restaurant, a retail outlet, a hotel and a petrol station. Most sites have WHSmith, a food court comprising popular fast food outlets such as Burger King...
was acquired by WH Smith. It was acquired by Hachette Livre, from the WHSmith Group PLC, in 2005. "Publishers who made it big in the Eighties | Showbiz"...
Chest branding 2013 Puma MakeMyTrip SpiceJet LIVE(IN) Jeans 2014 TYKA WHSmith Red FM 2015 Red FM Idea Justdial 2016 UltraTech Cement Red FM 2017 Red...
Genre" (PDF). "Explore the Themes and Genres of Young Adult Books". blog.whsmith.co.uk. 25 February 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2018. "YA Genre-Blending | Focus...
As Lucy Fails To Impress". HuffPost. WHSmith. "Be Body Beautiful: My Guide to a Healthy, Happy New You". WHSmith. "Lucy Mecklenburgh is the new face of...
11 August 2022. "TommyInnit Says...The Quote Book by Tom Simons | WHSmith". WHSmith. Retrieved 5 August 2022. "Wilbur Music - YouTube". www.youtube.com...
which is the light at the end of the tunnel." It Starts with Us was named WHSmith's Book of the Year for 2022. Veltman, Chloe (October 24, 2022). "Author...
shopping streets including Hope Street with major retailers such as New Look, WHSmith and Claire's and Bank street with independent businesses. Plas Coch and...
13 February 2018. "Andy Weir: The Short Story Prequel to The Martian". WHSmith. September 30, 2015. Archived from the original on December 9, 2018. Retrieved...
Global Information
£1,793 million (2023)[2]