WH Smith announce plans to shut some stores
WH Smith have announced that six high street stores and a franchisee initiative as part of a restructuring to cope with weaker consumer spending.
The company said group pretax profit fell 4 percent to 134 million pounds in the year ending in August and high street trading profit fell 3 percent to 60 million pounds.
Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst George Salmon said WH Smith was still delivering underlying profit growth “but that performance masks the fact WH Smith’s high street division is facing some pretty tough challenges.”
WH Smith's shares were 8.5 percent lower at 1,859 pence by 0745 GMT, one of the worst performers on London's midcap index .FTMC.
WH Smith, which operates 867 travel outlets and 607 high street stores in Britain, said it would wind down its franchised convenience store arm WHSmith Local and its Cardmarket chain, as well as closing about six high street stores and restructure some other operations.
Published: by Radio NewsHub