W H Smith
Encyclopedia
WHSmith plc (known colloquially as Smith's) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon
, Wiltshire
, England. It is best known for its chain of high street
, railway station
, airport
, hospital
and motorway service station shops selling book
s, stationery
, magazine
s, newspaper
s, and entertainment products. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange
and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index
. It has been innovative over the course of its history, being the first chain store company ever in the world and was responsible for the creation of the ISBN
book catalogue system.
and his wife Anna established the business as a news vendor in Little Grosvenor Street, London. After their deaths, the business — valued in 1812 at £1,280 — was taken over by their youngest son William Henry Smith, and in 1846 the firm became W H Smith & Son when his only son, also William Henry, became a partner. The firm took advantage of the railway boom by opening newsstands on railway stations
, starting with Euston
in 1848. In 1850 the firm opened depots in Birmingham
, Manchester
and Liverpool
. The younger W H Smith used the success of the firm as a springboard into politics, becoming an MP
in 1868 and serving as a minister in several Conservative
governments.
After the death of W H Smith the younger, his widow was created Viscountess Hambleden
in her own right; their son inherited the business from his father and the Viscount
cy from his mother. After the death of the second Viscount in 1928, the business was reconstituted as a limited company
, in which his son, the third Viscount, owned all the ordinary shares. On the death of the third Viscount in 1948, the death duties were so severe that a public holding company had to be formed and shares sold to W H Smith staff and the public. A younger brother of the third Viscount remained chairman until 1972, but the Smith family's control slipped away, and the last family member left the board in 1996.
WH Smith is buried in Kensal Green cemetery
in London, one of the Magnificent Seven
. Uniquely his grave is owned and maintained by the WH Smith company and not the cemetery itself.
chain of DIY stores started with a 1979 acquisition, became a joint venture with Boots in 1990 and its share was sold in June 1996 to Boots. The upmarket bookshop chain Waterstone's
, founded by former W H Smith executive Tim Waterstone
in 1982, was bought in 1989 and sold in 1998.
music chain; in the 1990s it also bought other music retailers including the Virgin Group
's smaller (non-Megastore
) shops. The 75% share of Virgin Our Price was sold to Virgin Retail Group Ltd in July 1998 for £145m.
' retail outlets for £68m, which for many years were the main rival to the company's small railway-station outlets. This purchase also cleared the way for W H Smith's retail expansion into Scotland. Prior to the takeover, Menzies' larger Scottish stores (carrying a very similar range of products to High Street W H Smith stores elsewhere) dominated the market, and the latter's presence was minimal.
s on the other: this led to poor financial performance, and a takeover bid in 2004 by the Permira
group, which fell through. The Company reacted to this by disposing of its overseas subsidiaries and its publishing business Hodder Headline
, in order to concentrate on reforming its core businesses.
In 2006, the company decided to demerge the retail and news distribution arms of the business into two separate companies: W H Smith plc (retail) and Smiths News plc
(newspaper and magazine distribution): the demerger took effect on 30 August 2006.
On 7 September 2010, WH Smith bought The Gadget Shop
from The Entertainer (Amersham) Ltd.
company Yorkshire Television
, following changes in the latter's share structure and ownership.
It also founded two of the UK's earliest cable television channels, Lifestyle
and Screensport
through its WHSTV division, which were carried on almost every cable system in the UK and Ireland prior to the start of Sky Television
. Both channels moved to the Astra 1A
satellite used by Sky in 1989 and later floundered due to the increased cable competition. Screensport merged with Eurosport
at its relaunch as part of the TF1 Group
, and Lifestyle was closed down.
Their current television
advertising campaign features well known TV personalities doing voice overs for products on sale. The Ads strap line is "Think (e.g. books) ... Think WH Smith".
(from December 2001), and Scotland (former John Menzies
stores) has seen the chain spread UK-wide. In Northern Ireland there is only one W H Smith High Street store, located in Belfast City centre with three travel locations at Belfast City Airport, Belfast International Airport
and the other at City of Derry Airport
which opened on 9 September 2010. In recent years the company have also focused on opening large out-of-town branches at retail parks.
In 2009, W H Smith opened two stores in Shannon Airport
, County Clare
, Republic of Ireland
. A further three stores are operated in Dublin Airport's Terminal Two, which opened in November 2010. The chain's promise when winning the contract to operate the three stores, to hire a full-time Irish book buyer was fulfilled by employing an Australian, who will be based in London and not in Dublin, drew adverse criticism.
On November 7th 2011 WH Smith opened it's first high street store in the Republic Of Ireland in Arnotts Dublin.
They currently have around 580 High Street Shops and 400 Travel units. WH Smith has announced plans to open 3 units under the 'Funky Pigeon' Brand.
announced that 70 of its branches nationwide are to move into W H Smith stores by autumn 2008. The Post Office says all its services will continue to be available at W H Smith.
announced that all of its fifty service stations would have W H Smith newsagents. This was followed by 33 Welcome Break
service stations in May 2007 and 29 RoadChef
service stations in March 2008.
-based chain of newsagents.
Canadian operations began in 1950 and continued until 1989, when they were sold to domestic owners and renamed SmithBooks. SmithBooks later merged with Coles
, forming Chapters
, which retained the Coles and SmithBooks names and locations while also opening new namesake big-box stores. Many SmithBooks locations were eventually closed or converted to Coles; a few locations still retain the name as of 2008. (All three banners are now operated by Indigo Books and Music
.)
W H Smith operated stores in the United States from 1985 until 2003, primarily in airports. The company acquired Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries in 2001 which were subsequently disposed of, along with those in the Hong Kong International Airport
(now as Page One) and in Singapore
, in 2004.
In September 2003, it sold its chain of 180 airport stores in the USA for £41m to the Hudson Group
and 280 of its USA hotel stores were sold for £8m.
WH Smith reopened its Australian operation in March 2011 following the collapse of A&R/Borders who held the naming rights in Australia. The first new store is now open at Melbourne International Airport, International Departures Terminal and a second location has now opened in downtown Melbourne, at Southern Cross Station.
WH Smith has opened stores across the major airports in India
.
The company retains one shop in the centre of Paris, France. In October 2008, W H Smith, together with SSP, opened five branches within Copenhagen Airport
and in April 2009 opened a branch in Stockholm-Arlanda Airport
.
, which has been running since 1959 and is one of the most wide-ranging of literary prizes, admitting works of all genres from authors of all ages and both sexes from across the world. W H Smith also sponsors the W H Smith Children's Book of the Year prize, which is part of the British Book Awards
. In recent years it also ran the People's Choice Book Awards, though these were discontinued as the group slimmed down. The W H Smith Illustration Awards were awarded between 1987 and 1994.
as one of the "Top 50 Books for Dad" as a Father's Day
gift.
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, England. It is best known for its chain of high street
High Street
High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
, railway station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
, airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
, hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
and motorway service station shops selling book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s, stationery
Stationery
Stationery has historically meant a wide gamut of materials: paper and office supplies, writing implements, greeting cards, glue, pencil case etc.-History of stationery:...
, magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s, newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s, and entertainment products. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index
FTSE 250 Index
The FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions to and demotions from the index take place quarterly in March, June, September and December...
. It has been innovative over the course of its history, being the first chain store company ever in the world and was responsible for the creation of the ISBN
International Standard Book Number
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering code created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H...
book catalogue system.
Formation
In 1792, Henry Walton SmithHenry Walton Smith
Henry Walton Smith was the founder of W H Smith, one of the United Kingdom's largest bookselling and newspaper vending businesses.-Career:...
and his wife Anna established the business as a news vendor in Little Grosvenor Street, London. After their deaths, the business — valued in 1812 at £1,280 — was taken over by their youngest son William Henry Smith, and in 1846 the firm became W H Smith & Son when his only son, also William Henry, became a partner. The firm took advantage of the railway boom by opening newsstands on railway stations
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
, starting with Euston
Euston station
Euston station may refer to one of the following stations in London, United Kingdom:*Euston railway station, a major terminus for trains to the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and part of Scotland...
in 1848. In 1850 the firm opened depots in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. The younger W H Smith used the success of the firm as a springboard into politics, becoming an MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in 1868 and serving as a minister in several Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
governments.
After the death of W H Smith the younger, his widow was created Viscountess Hambleden
Viscount Hambleden
Viscount Hambleden, of Hambleden in the County of Buckinghamshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1891 for Emily Danvers Smith, in honour of her deceased husband, the businessman and Conservative politician William Henry Smith...
in her own right; their son inherited the business from his father and the Viscount
Viscount
A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
cy from his mother. After the death of the second Viscount in 1928, the business was reconstituted as a limited company
Limited company
A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...
, in which his son, the third Viscount, owned all the ordinary shares. On the death of the third Viscount in 1948, the death duties were so severe that a public holding company had to be formed and shares sold to W H Smith staff and the public. A younger brother of the third Viscount remained chairman until 1972, but the Smith family's control slipped away, and the last family member left the board in 1996.
WH Smith is buried in Kensal Green cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...
in London, one of the Magnificent Seven
Magnificent Seven
Magnificent Seven or Magnificent 7 may refer to:* The Magnificent Seven, a 1960 western film* The Magnificent Seven , a 1997–2000 television series based on the 1960 film...
. Uniquely his grave is owned and maintained by the WH Smith company and not the cemetery itself.
ISBN catalogue invention
In 1966, W H Smith originated a 9-digit code for uniquely referencing books, called Standard Book Numbering or SBN. It was adopted as international standard ISO 2108 in 1970, and was used until 1974, when it became the ISBN scheme.1970s expansion
From the 1970s, W H Smith began to expand into other areas of retail. W H Smith Travel operated from 1973 to 1991, The Do It AllDo It All
- History :Do It All was originally created by WH Smith in 1979 when the company acquired a DIY chain.Fierce competition in the 1980s saw the chain struggle, and in 1990 it was merged with the rival Payless DIY chain, owned by the Boots Group. The combined group - in which WH Smith and Boots both...
chain of DIY stores started with a 1979 acquisition, became a joint venture with Boots in 1990 and its share was sold in June 1996 to Boots. The upmarket bookshop chain Waterstone's
Waterstone's
Waterstone's is a British book specialist established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone that employs around 4,500 staff throughout the United Kingdom and Europe....
, founded by former W H Smith executive Tim Waterstone
Tim Waterstone
Tim Waterstone is the founder of the United Kingdom bookselling retail chain Waterstone's. Waterstone's now employs 4,500 staff, is the largest specialist bookseller in Europe, with stores in the UK, Holland, Belgium and Ireland, and is the third largest bookseller in the world.- Early life and...
in 1982, was bought in 1989 and sold in 1998.
Ownership of music retailers
In 1986, W H Smith bought a 75% controlling share of the Our PriceOur Price
Our Price was a chain of record stores in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland from 1972 until 2004. Originally founded in 1972 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, early stores were branded "The Tape Revolution" and concentrated on the then-new compact cassette format.The name...
music chain; in the 1990s it also bought other music retailers including the Virgin Group
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
's smaller (non-Megastore
Virgin Megastore
Virgin Megastores is an international chain of record shops, founded by Sir Richard Branson on London's Oxford Street in early 1971. Virgin Megastores are best described today as entertainment retailers....
) shops. The 75% share of Virgin Our Price was sold to Virgin Retail Group Ltd in July 1998 for £145m.
Takeover of John Menzies
In March 1998, the company acquired John MenziesJohn Menzies
John Menzies plc is a Scottish business established in 1833. It has two main divisions: Menzies Distribution and Menzies Aviation. Menzies Distribution is a major distributor of newspapers and magazines throughout the United Kingdom...
' retail outlets for £68m, which for many years were the main rival to the company's small railway-station outlets. This purchase also cleared the way for W H Smith's retail expansion into Scotland. Prior to the takeover, Menzies' larger Scottish stores (carrying a very similar range of products to High Street W H Smith stores elsewhere) dominated the market, and the latter's presence was minimal.
Recent developments
For several years, the company's retail side had difficulties competing with specialist book and music chains on one side and large supermarketSupermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s on the other: this led to poor financial performance, and a takeover bid in 2004 by the Permira
Permira
Permira is a United Kingdom-based private equity firm with global reach. The firm advises funds with a total committed capital of approximately €20 billion....
group, which fell through. The Company reacted to this by disposing of its overseas subsidiaries and its publishing business Hodder Headline
Hodder Headline
Headline Publishing Group is a British publishing company. It was founded in 1986 by Tim Hely Hutchinson, and acquired Hodder & Stoughton in 1992 to form Hodder Headline. It was acquired by Hachette Livre, from the WHSmith Group PLC, in 2005....
, in order to concentrate on reforming its core businesses.
In 2006, the company decided to demerge the retail and news distribution arms of the business into two separate companies: W H Smith plc (retail) and Smiths News plc
Smiths News
Smiths News plc is a British newspaper and magazine distributor, based in Swindon, England. The company, previously known as 'WHSmith News' was created on 1 September 2006 from the demerger of WH Smith plc ....
(newspaper and magazine distribution): the demerger took effect on 30 August 2006.
On 7 September 2010, WH Smith bought The Gadget Shop
The Gadget Shop
Gadgetshop is an electronic toy retailer based in the United Kingdom, which offers many unusual products such as the "USB Cup Warmer", the "Time Machine Clock", and the "Solar Airship"....
from The Entertainer (Amersham) Ltd.
The Entertainer (Amersham) Ltd.
The Entertainer Ltd. is the United Kingdom's largest independent toy retailer, founded by husband and wife team Catherine and Gary Grant in 1981, when he purchased a local toy shop in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England...
Television
In 1982, W H Smith bought a significant minority stake in the ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
company Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
, following changes in the latter's share structure and ownership.
It also founded two of the UK's earliest cable television channels, Lifestyle
Lifestyle (TV channel)
Launched on 30 October 1985, Lifestyle was a British daytime television channel dedicated to women and family, and was broadcast on cable and on the transponder 5 of the Astra satellite. Lifestyle's lineup consisted on magazines, novelas and movies. The programming was linked by an in vision...
and Screensport
Screensport
Screensport was a pan-European sports television channel. The network was launched as a stand-alone channel in Manchester on 29th March 1984 and later acquired by the WH Smith Television Group in 1987...
through its WHSTV division, which were carried on almost every cable system in the UK and Ireland prior to the start of Sky Television
Sky Television plc
Sky Television plc was a public limited company which operated its four-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International on 5 February 1989...
. Both channels moved to the Astra 1A
Astra 1A
Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by SES . During its early days, it was often referred to as the Astra Satellite, as SES only operated one satellite originally....
satellite used by Sky in 1989 and later floundered due to the increased cable competition. Screensport merged with Eurosport
Eurosport
Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...
at its relaunch as part of the TF1 Group
TF1 Group
TF1 Group is a French media holding company , the owner of channel TF1, the largest European private TV channel, and Eurosport, the largest European sports network.The group was formed after TF1 was privatised in 1987...
, and Lifestyle was closed down.
Their current television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
advertising campaign features well known TV personalities doing voice overs for products on sale. The Ads strap line is "Think (e.g. books) ... Think WH Smith".
UK & Ireland
In recent years the establishment of a significant retail presence in Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
(from December 2001), and Scotland (former John Menzies
John Menzies
John Menzies plc is a Scottish business established in 1833. It has two main divisions: Menzies Distribution and Menzies Aviation. Menzies Distribution is a major distributor of newspapers and magazines throughout the United Kingdom...
stores) has seen the chain spread UK-wide. In Northern Ireland there is only one W H Smith High Street store, located in Belfast City centre with three travel locations at Belfast City Airport, Belfast International Airport
Belfast International Airport
Belfast International Airport is a major airport located northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was formerly known and is still referred to as Aldergrove Airport, after the village of the same name lying immediately to the west of the airport. Belfast International shares its runways with...
and the other at City of Derry Airport
City of Derry Airport
City of Derry Airport is an airport located northeast of Derry, Northern Ireland. It is located on the south bank of Lough Foyle, a short distance from the village of Eglinton and from the city centre...
which opened on 9 September 2010. In recent years the company have also focused on opening large out-of-town branches at retail parks.
In 2009, W H Smith opened two stores in Shannon Airport
Shannon Airport
Shannon Airport, is one of the Republic of Ireland's three primary airports along with Dublin and Cork. In 2010 around 1,750,000 passengers passed through the airport, making it the third busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland after Dublin and Cork, and the fifth busiest airport on the island...
, County Clare
County Clare
-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...
, Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. A further three stores are operated in Dublin Airport's Terminal Two, which opened in November 2010. The chain's promise when winning the contract to operate the three stores, to hire a full-time Irish book buyer was fulfilled by employing an Australian, who will be based in London and not in Dublin, drew adverse criticism.
On November 7th 2011 WH Smith opened it's first high street store in the Republic Of Ireland in Arnotts Dublin.
They currently have around 580 High Street Shops and 400 Travel units. WH Smith has announced plans to open 3 units under the 'Funky Pigeon' Brand.
Inclusion of post offices (High Street)
On 18 April 2007, the Post OfficePost Office Ltd.
Post Office Ltd is a retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of products including postage stamps and banking to the public through its nationwide network of post office branches.-Structure:Post Office Ltd...
announced that 70 of its branches nationwide are to move into W H Smith stores by autumn 2008. The Post Office says all its services will continue to be available at W H Smith.
Motorway service stations (Travel)
In November 2006, MotoMoto Hospitality
Moto Hospitality is a company which operates 58 motorway service stations across the UK.Moto is owned by a consortium of shareholders including Australian Pension Funds and European and New Zealand Infrastructure Funds and is asset managed by Macquarie Investment Bank...
announced that all of its fifty service stations would have W H Smith newsagents. This was followed by 33 Welcome Break
Welcome Break
Welcome Break is a company which operates thirty-five motorway service stations in the UK. It is the second largest motorway service area operator behind Moto.-History:...
service stations in May 2007 and 29 RoadChef
RoadChef
Roadchef is a company which operates twenty motorway service areas in the UK. Behind Moto and Welcome Break, it is the third largest motorway service area operator .-History:...
service stations in March 2008.
Hospital stores (Travel)
On 19 March 2008, WH Smith announced the takeover of United News, a YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
-based chain of newsagents.
International
W H Smith has also engaged in business outside of the United Kingdom and Ireland.Canadian operations began in 1950 and continued until 1989, when they were sold to domestic owners and renamed SmithBooks. SmithBooks later merged with Coles
Coles (bookstore)
Coles is a Canadian bookstore chain owned by Indigo Books and Music. Coles currently serves as Indigo's brand for small-scale bookstores in locations such as shopping malls...
, forming Chapters
Chapters
Chapters is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Formerly a company in its own right competing with Indigo, the combined company has continued to operate both banners since their merger in 2001.-History:...
, which retained the Coles and SmithBooks names and locations while also opening new namesake big-box stores. Many SmithBooks locations were eventually closed or converted to Coles; a few locations still retain the name as of 2008. (All three banners are now operated by Indigo Books and Music
Indigo Books and Music
Indigo Books & Music Inc. is a Canadian retail bookstore chain. The company was founded in 1996 by CEO Heather Reisman, wife of Gerry Schwartz, majority owner and CEO of Onex Corporation....
.)
W H Smith operated stores in the United States from 1985 until 2003, primarily in airports. The company acquired Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries in 2001 which were subsequently disposed of, along with those in the Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong International Airport is the main airport in Hong Kong. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport , being built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation, and also to distinguish it from its predecessor, the closed Kai Tak Airport.The airport opened for commercial...
(now as Page One) and in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, in 2004.
In September 2003, it sold its chain of 180 airport stores in the USA for £41m to the Hudson Group
Hudson Group
The Hudson Group is an East Rutherford, New Jersey, based retailer which operates a chain of newsstands, bookstores, fast food restaurants, and other retail stores chiefly at airports and train stations in the United States. It was founded in 1918 by Ike Cohen as a newspaper distributorship in...
and 280 of its USA hotel stores were sold for £8m.
WH Smith reopened its Australian operation in March 2011 following the collapse of A&R/Borders who held the naming rights in Australia. The first new store is now open at Melbourne International Airport, International Departures Terminal and a second location has now opened in downtown Melbourne, at Southern Cross Station.
WH Smith has opened stores across the major airports in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
The company retains one shop in the centre of Paris, France. In October 2008, W H Smith, together with SSP, opened five branches within Copenhagen Airport
Copenhagen Airport
Copenhagen Airport is the main international airport serving Copenhagen, Denmark and the Oresund Region. It is located on the island of Amager, south of Copenhagen city centre, and west of Malmö city centre on the other side of the Oresund Bridge. The airport lies mainly in the municipality...
and in April 2009 opened a branch in Stockholm-Arlanda Airport
Stockholm-Arlanda Airport
Stockholm Arlanda Airport , is an international airport located in the Sigtuna Municipality of Sweden, near the town of Märsta, north of Stockholm and nearly , by road, south-east of Uppsala....
.
Awards and prizes
W H Smith is the sponsor of the WH Smith Literary AwardWH Smith Literary Award
The WH Smith Literary Award was an award founded in 1959 by British high street retailer W H Smith. Its founding aim was stated to be to "encourage and bring international esteem to authors of the British Commonwealth"; originally open to all residents of the UK, the Commonwealth and the Republic...
, which has been running since 1959 and is one of the most wide-ranging of literary prizes, admitting works of all genres from authors of all ages and both sexes from across the world. W H Smith also sponsors the W H Smith Children's Book of the Year prize, which is part of the British Book Awards
British Book Awards
The Galaxy National Book Awards are a series of British literary awards focused on the best UK writers and their works, as selected by an academy of members from the British book publishing industry...
. In recent years it also ran the People's Choice Book Awards, though these were discontinued as the group slimmed down. The W H Smith Illustration Awards were awarded between 1987 and 1994.
Public relations
On 19 June 2009, WH Smith apologised after promoting a book on cellar rapist Josef FritzlFritzl case
The Fritzl case emerged in April 2008 when a 42-year-old woman, Elisabeth Fritzl , stated to police in the town of Amstetten, Austria, that she had been held captive for 24 years in a concealed corridor part of the basement area of the family home, a condominium-style apartment complex built by her...
as one of the "Top 50 Books for Dad" as a Father's Day
Father's Day
Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June but it is also celebrated widely on other days...
gift.