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WHSmith branded shops will disappear from UK high streets following a £76mn deal to sell the business on Friday.
The group will offload all 480 stores in town centres to Modella Capital, which also owns HobbyCraft in the UK, to focus on its lucrative international travel retail business, which accounts for 75 per cent of group revenue and 85 per cent of trading profit.
The WHSMW stores will be rebranded as TG Jones as part of the deal, the company said on Friday. The group’s travel stores in airports, train stations and hospitals will continue to trade under the WHSmith name, which has a 233-year history.
The sale of the division, for an enterprise value of £76mn on a cash and debt free basis, is a significant moment for the UK high street, which has been hard hit by the shift to online shopping and high profile collapses such as Debenhams and Topshop.
WHSmith was established in 1792 as a family-run newsagent, and opened its first travel retail store in London’s Euston station in 1848.
Over the past decade the FTSE 250 company has become an international travel retailer through acquisitions such as a $400mn deal to buy Marshall Retail Group in the US in 2019. Travel retail will now become its sole focus.
Chief executive Carl Cowling said that as the “travel business has grown, the UK high street business has become a much smaller part of the group”. WHSmith was aiming to “become the leading global travel retailer”.
The news comes two months after the group revealed it was in talks to sell its high street business.
