WHSmith reports growth in travel-retail

Gavin Lipsith

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The UK news and books retailer has welcomed continued growth in its travel outlets while the UK high street remains "a challenging environment"

News and books retailer WH Smith hailed the continuing strong performance of its travel-retail outlets—at UK airports and railways—as it predicted profit growth in line with expectations for 2005. The group, which recently divested its North American and Asia/Pacific travel-retail businesses, forecast pre-tax profit of about £71.3m ($127.8m), compared with £65m ($116.5m) last year.

New CEO Kate Swann warned that the UK high street conditions would remain challenging in the second half of the year, but said tight cost control and improved margins would ensure the company is profitable this year. She also praised growth in travel-retail as well as news distribution.

WH Smith is undergoing a change of strategy after posting its first annual loss since 1996 last year, and is increasing the amount of space devoted to top-selling books and DVDs.