WH Smith PLC is one of the UK’s leading retailers and is made up of two core businesses – Travel and High Street.
The Travel business operates 757 units, mainly in airports, railway stations, motorway service areas, hospitals and workplaces, primarily in the UK. Travel stores sell a more tailored range of products than High Street stores to cater for people on the move or in need of a convenience offer.
The High Street business operates 618 stores with an extensive reach across the UK and a presence on nearly every significant UK high street. High Street sells a wide range of products, which are divided into the following categories: Stationery (including greetings cards), Books, and News and Impulse (including newspapers, magazines and confectionery),
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This led to poor financial performance, and a takeover bid in 2004 by Permira, which fell through. It reacted to this by disposing of its overseas subsidiaries and its publishing business Hodder Headline, in order to concentrate on reforming its core businesses.
In 2006, the company decided to demerge the retail and news distribution arms of the business into two separate companies: W. H. Smith plc (retail) and Smith News Plc (newspaper and magazine distribution). The demerger took effect on 30 August 2006.
On 7 September 2010, W. H. Smith bought The Gadget Shop from The Entertainer.
In October 2014, W. H. Smith announced as part of its preliminary statement that it was planning on extending its greetings card offering by launching the value focussed brand Cardmarket on a trial basis. According to the statement, these trial stores will be in low rent areas and will be let to W. H. Smith under short term leases.
Television
In 1982, W. H. Smith bought a significant minority stake in the ITV company Yorkshire Television following changes in the latter's share structure and