Historic retailer WH Smith has quit the 海角视频 high street after 233 years.
The Swindon-headquartered books and stationery business has sold its 480 high street stores, which employ around 5,000 people, to Hobbycraft owner Modella Capital for £76m.
WH Smith said the move would allow it to focus on its growing travel shops business. The WH Smith brand was not included in the sale to Modella and the high street shops will now be rebranded to TG Jones as a result.
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Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna first established WH Smith in 1792 in Little Grosvenor Street in Mayfair as a news vendor. After their deaths, the business was taken over by youngest son William Henry Smith in 1812.
He then renamed the business as WH Smith & Son in 1846 when his son, also called William Henry, joined him as a partner in the business.
It was around this time that the business started to notably expand. It took advantage of the 海角视频 railway boom by opening its first railway news stand at Euston Station in 1848.
Two years later the business opened its first depots in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
As the group expanded nationally, it also expanded its business operations, launching a circulating library service and a publishing operation based in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
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Meanwhile, the younger WH Smith served as a Conservative MP while running the business, before his death in 1891, where it was passed onto his widow, Viscountess Hambleden.
The business continued to be passed down by the family and became a limited company in 1928, with all shares owned by the third Viscount.
The company became a public limited business after his death in 1948, with staff and members of the public taking shares.
Members of the family stayed on the board for the following decades before the final member of the Smith family left the board in 1996. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the business witnessed a particularly sharp expansion.
During this period, the company dropped its WH Smith & Sons title in favour of just WH Smith and developed its well-known blue branding.
The group also grew through a series of deals including the creation of the Do It All DIY chain and 1989 takeover of Waterstones book shops. It sold off Waterstones nine years later.
Despite still being dominant in the 海角视频 high street, the company came under pressure in the 2000s and onwards as online retailers and supermarkets tapped more into the high street business’s core customer base.
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As part of a shake-up of its operations, it split up its retail and news distribution businesses with the demerger of Smiths News in 2006.
It also struck a number of further deals, such as the takeovers of The Gadget Shop and Funky Pigeon in a bid to target growth areas.
In more recent years, the group continued to expand its travel business of shops at train stations and airports. In 2018, it furthered this by snapping up travel tech retailer InMotion.
While travel sales continued to surge, the company continued to flag a weaker performance across its traditional high street stores.
Ultimately, the company confirmed in January that it was seeking to sell off the high street business following a strategic review.
An auction process saw Modella and rival Alteri bid to buy the shops, with Modella ultimately securing the business and confirming its planned rebrand.