WH Smith has reported a four per cent increase in revenue for the first half of the financial year, largely due to growth in its travel stores as it plans to withdraw from the high street.
The company's total travel revenue saw a six per cent like-for-like rise in the 21 weeks leading up to January 25, while high street revenue fell by three per cent, as reported by .
Earlier this week, WH Smith confirmed that they are considering selling their high street business.
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"Over the past decade, WH Smith has become a focused global travel retailer. The group’s travel business has over 1,200 stores across 32 countries, and three-quarters of the Group’s revenue and 85 per cent of its trading profit comes from the travel business," the firm stated in a London Stock Exchange announcement yesterday.
This news was well received by the market, with the company's share price increasing by 10 per cent in the last five days.
Robinhood 海角视频 lead analyst Dan Lane commented on the figures: "Today’s figures show we haven’t warmed any more to the town centre stores... WH Smith needs to run its travel store winners and cut the lagging high street arm loose."
WH Smith noted that travel sales "remain particularly strong in air" where revenue has been growing faster than passenger numbers, up nine per cent compared to the same period last year.
Chief executive Carl Cowling said: "The Group has had a good start to the financial year, and we continue to see strong momentum across our core Travel business."
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"Our 海角视频 Travel business has delivered another excellent performance across all channels, as we continue to make good progress with the rollout of our one-stop-shop for travel essentials format."
"In North America, we have seen a notable shift in like-for-like revenue growth, up 3 per cent, as a result of the actions we have taken to enhance our ranges and introduce new categories. We now have a new store pipeline of circa 60 stores in North America."
"The Group is in a strong position, and while there is some economic uncertainty, we are confident of another year of good growth in 2025."
As of January 28, the Group had purchased 1.4m shares for cancellation worth £17.5m as part of its £50m share buyback.