Prior to entering its close period ahead of reporting its preliminary results for the twelve months ending 31 August 2019 on 17 October 2019, WH Smith Plc (LON:SMWH) announces the following pre-close update.
WHSmith Travel
Our Travel business continues to perform strongly with good sales across all of our channels. Our hospital channel is now the second largest channel in our UK Travel business. Gross margin is in line with plan and our new store opening programme is on track both in the UK and internationally.
Our International business (including InMotion) continues to grow strongly and we have 428 stores open outside the UK. We now have three InMotion stores outside North America: in Perth, Australia; Alicante, Spain; and Leeds Bradford in the UK. We see good scope to grow InMotion both in the US and internationally. In addition, we see further opportunities to grow our news, books and convenience format in the international travel retail market, where we have a small market share.
WHSmith High Street
Our High Street business continues to perform in line with expectations. Consistent with our profit focused strategy, cost savings and margin improvements have been delivered in line with plan. We continue to focus on our successful stationery business, developing new ranges and allocating additional space to the category in our High Street stores. In addition, we now have 202 Post Offices open in our High Street stores.
WH Smith PLC expects the outcome for the year to 31 August 2019 to be in line with expectations.
2019 Preliminary Results
The WH Smith PLC preliminary results investor and analyst presentation for the year ending 31 August 2019 will be held at 9.00am on Thursday, 17 October 2019 at JP Morgan, One John Carpenter Street, London, EC4Y 0JP.
