WHSmith
Sign in to saveWH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British travel retailer, with headquarters in London, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.
Key facts
- Company.name
- WH Smith plc
- Company.logo
- WHSmith logo.svg
- Company.type
- Public
- Company.foundation
- in London, England, UK
- Company.founder
- Henry Walton Smith
- Company.successor
- TGJones (high street retail and online businesses)
- Company.location
- London, England, UK
- Company.area_served
- Worldwide
- Company.key_people
- Annette Court (chair)Carl Cowling (CEO)
- Company.industry
- Retail
- Company.locations
- 593 (UK Travel)687 (International Travel)
- Company.revenue
- £1,553 million (2025)
- Company.operating_income
- £148 million (2025)
- Company.net_income
- £(137) million (2025)
- Company.num_employees
- 14,235 (2025)
- Company.subsid
- Marshall Retail Group
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
14 sectionsContents
- History
- Formation
- Expansion
- Restructuring
- Since 2015
- Focus on travel retail
- Television
- Operations
- United Kingdom
- International
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British travel retailer, with headquarters in London, England, which operates a chain of 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. In the 1960s, the company facilitated the creation of the SBN book identifier, which later became the internationally-used ISBN.
Gallery (16)
Connections
Categories
1792 establishments in EnglandBook selling websitesBookshops of the United KingdomBritish brandsCompanies based in SwindonCompanies in the FTSE 250 IndexCompanies listed on the London Stock ExchangeInternational Standard Book NumberRetail companies established in 1792Retail companies of the United Kingdom