WHSmith

WH Smith PLC
Formerly
  • Pollquote Limited (2004–2006)[1]
  • New WH Smith plc (June–August 2006)[1]
Company typePublic
IndustryRetail
Founded1792 (1792) in London, England
HeadquartersSwindon, England
Number of locations
525 (High Street)
580 (UK Travel)
600 (International Travel)[a][2]
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Henry Staunton (Chairman)
Carl Cowling (CEO)
Brands
  • InMotion
  • District Market
  • Flight Stop
  • Lick
  • Marshall Rousso
  • Root & Branch
  • Tech Express
  • curi.o.city
[3]
RevenueIncrease £1,793 million (2023)[2]
Increase £182 million (2023)[2]
Increase £88 million (2023)[2]
Number of employees
14,177 (2023)[2]
WebsiteConsumer
Corporate
Footnotes / references
[4][5]

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.[6]

WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

  1. ^ a b "WH Smith plc overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 10 August 2004. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Annual Report 2023" (PDF). W. H. Smith. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Brands And Partnered Brand". W. H. Smith. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  4. ^ "WH Smith PLC overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 10 August 2004. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Terms of Use". WH Smith PLC. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Book identifier was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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