WH Smith puts travel business in driving seat
Venerable retailer WH Smith, which has its headquarters in Swindon, has confirmed that it is exploring a potential sale for its traditional high street business.
Over the past decade, WHSmith has become a focused global travel retailer. The Group's Travel business has more than 1,200 stores across 32 countries, with three-quarters of the Group's revenue and 85 per cent of its trading profit comes from the Travel business.Â
The retailer was established as a news vendor in 1792 in Little Grosvernor Street, London, by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna. It became WH Smith in 1846 when their only son, William Henry, took over.
Opening stores at major transport hubs has been a mainstay of the WH Smith business since 1848 when it opened its first railway bookstall at Euston Station.
In 1850 the firm opened depots in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. It also ran a circulating library service from 1860 to 1961, and a publishing business based at the Steam Press in Cirencester.
The business stayed as a family firm until 1928.
In 1965 WH Smith (at that time the largest single book retailer in the country), announced plans to move to a computerised warehouse in 1967 (which was built in Swindon). It hired consultants to devised the Standard Book Numbering (SBN) system in 1966 which was implemented in 1967.
This was adopted as international standard ISO 2108 in 1970, and was used until 1974, when it became the ISBN scheme.
That original standard has been revised as book and book-like content appeared in new forms of media, but the basic structure of the ISBN has not changed. It is now used in more than 150 countries and continues to be administered by the International ISBN Agency in London.
The business became a public company in 1948, and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 when the company demerged into two separate companies, WH Smith plc, and Smiths News plc.
From 2007 it took on a number of post office branches, opening them up within its high street stores.
Over the years WH Smith has bought (and either absorbed into the business, closed or sold) other high street brands, including Our Price Music, Paperchase. It has also been recognised as taking the UK's first secure online order in 1995 - recognised as the start of online shopping in the UK by IMRG.
