WH Smith targets travellers with coffee concept

Gavin Lipsith

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The news and books specialist is in talks with landlords to roll out a new self-service coffee machine in its travel-retail stores

WH Smith is negotiating with UK airports and railway stations over installing self-service coffee machines at its 220 travel-retail locations. The move follows a successful trial of the Coffee Nation concept at WH Smith outlets at Manchester International airport.

The introduction of coffee machines is the latest in a series of innovations at WH Smith, which has recently begun to increase the amount of space devoted to DVDs, CDs and best-selling books. The new strategy has paid off so far, with the company forecasting continued growth in travel-retail for 2005.