WHSmith
WHSmith's headquarters in Swindon, England | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1792 in London, England, UK |
| Headquarters | Swindon, England, UK |
Number of locations | 594 (UK Travel) 697 (International Travel) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Annette Court (chair) Carl Cowling (CEO) |
| Brands |
|
| Revenue | £1,918 million (2024) |
| £213 million (2024) | |
| £77 million (2024) | |
Number of employees | 13,921 (2024) |
| Subsidiaries | Marshall Retail Group |
| Website | Consumer Corporate |
| Footnotes / references | |
WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, 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. It was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier.
The company reached an agreement in 2025 to sell its high street store business to Modella Capital. Upon completion of the sale, that business will be renamed TGJones.
WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.