WHSMITH will disappear off the high street forever after all 500 of its shops have been sold in a £76million deal.
The 232 year-old British business has agreed to sell the chain to Modella Capital, with the stores eventually rebranded as TGJones.
It comes after WHSmith said it was looking at offloading 500 high street stores in January.
Around 5,000 people are employed across the high street shops.
Carl Cowling, chief of the high street brand described the move as a “pivotal moment”.
WHSmith has been slowly shifting away from its shops in town centres and shopping outlets at it turns its focus to its more lucrative travel brand.
He said: “We have a highly successful Travel business, operating in fast growing markets in 32 countries and we are constantly innovating to deliver strong returns and meet our customers’ and partners’ needs.
“Our Travel business currently accounts for around 75% of the Group’s revenue and 85% of its trading profit.”
The store has over 580 travel stores across airports, hospitals, railway stations and motorway service areas which will continue to live on.
Last January, the stationer said it wanted to open 15 new shops in airports, railway stations and hospitals before the end of 2024.
This formed part of wider plans to open 110 new branches worldwide.
It also said in November it will close up to 20 stores each year over the next three years, the vast majority of which are on the high street.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Britain’s retail apocalypse: why your favourite stores KEEP closing down” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6339711979112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]WHSmith’s results for the 21 week period to January 25, 2025, revealed its travel stores were trading well, with revenue across North America stores up 3% like-for-like.
There has been much interest in the brand portfolio, with HMV owner Doug Putman expressing interest in the brand.
WHSmith was also in discussion with private equity group Alteri Investors.
New owners Modella have a history of snapping up iconic British stores.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D110574%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]Last August, the retail investor bought Hobby Craft and just last month snapped up The Original Factory Shop.
WHSmith has already reduced its portfolio of stores massively, with plans to shut 20 of its sites by May.
[boxout headline=”HISTORY OF WHSMITH”]THE first WHSmith’s store was opened all the way back in 1792 by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in Little Grosvenor Street, London.
In 1848, the brand opened its first ever retail store in London’s Euston station, kicking starting a long relationship with travel hubs across the globe.
Over the years, the brand has sold a variety of products including everything from Vinyl records to DVD’s and computer games.
But it has always been best known for its wide variety of books, stationary and sweets.
TROUBLE ON THE HIGH STREET
WHSmith’s departure from the high street will come as a blow to many shoppers.
The brand was loved by many, with generations of customers flocking to buy everything from Vinyl records to sweets.
It comes just a few years after rival Wilko collapsed, with the brand partially rescued by The Range.
Once seemingly resilient stores are buckling under the pressure of shoppers having less money to spend and the rise in online retailing.
Elsewhere, Pepco Group, the owner of Poundland stores in the UK, has hired hired advisory firm Teneo to oversee the sale of the business.
It comes after Pepco said it was looking at “all strategic options” to separate Poundland from its brand.
The Polish group said it might turn its focus to its more profitable businesses in Europe.
The move has sparked fears over the future of Poundland’s 800 stores across Britain.
[boxout headline=”RETAIL PAIN IN 2025″ intro=”The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.”]Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”