WH Smith Plc reports FY25 results as pure-play travel retailer

WH Smith plc (LON:SMWH) has announced its preliminary results announcement for the year ended 31 August 2025.

Group completes strategic shift into pure-play travel retail  

Clear strategic priorities to drive sustainable profitable growth

·    Completion of the Group’s transformation into a pure-play travel retailer following the sale of the High Street business and funkypigeon.com

·    Total Group revenue up 5% to £1,553m (2024¹: £1,473m)

o  UK up 5%; North America (NA) up 7%*; Rest of the World and Other (‘ROW’) up 12%*

·    Headline Group profit before tax and non-underlying items² £108m (2024¹: £114m)

o  Headline Group trading profit² of £159m (2024¹: £170m)

·    Headline diluted EPS before non-underlying items² 43.4p

·    Proposed final dividend of 6.0p per share, resulting in full year dividend of 17.3p per share, maintaining our dividend policy of 2.5x cover, reset to our continuing business earnings

·    Clear priorities established by division and a more focused strategy to deliver profitable growth and enhanced return on capital:

o  expand and strengthen category leadership in UK Travel essentials, scale health and beauty and food-to-go offer;

o  enhanced focus on NA Travel Essentials business. Plan to exit North America fashion and speciality stores and to review the breadth of InMotion NA portfolio; and

o  strengthen core ROW markets, new growth driven through franchise model, review and exit non-core markets.

·    Following the findings of the Deloitte Review announced on 19 November 2025, a comprehensive remediation plan is in place and progressing at pace

·    The Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) has commenced an investigation into the Company

·    The Group expects to deliver FY26 Headline Group profit before tax and non-underlying items² of £100m – £115m.

Andrew Harrison, Interim Group Chief Executive, commented:

“It has been a difficult end to the year for the Group. The Board and I are acutely aware that we have much to do to rebuild confidence in WHSmith and deliver stronger returns as we move forward. We are acting at pace progressing our remediation plan and are committed to ensuring that we strengthen our financial controls and governance as we move forward.

“Following the sale of our UK High Street business and Funky Pigeon during the year, we are now a pure-play global travel retailer. Travel retail is a high growth market, and we have attractive market positions in the UK, North America and our international markets from which we are well-positioned to grow.

“I would like to thank our colleagues who have shown the utmost commitment and professionalism during an uncertain and busy period for the business.

“As Interim CEO, my focus is to provide stability and to lead the Group with transparency and discipline. WHSmith is a business with an exciting future and I look forward to executing against our clear priorities to ensure we capitalise on the attractive opportunities ahead.”

* On a constant currency basis

¹ Comparative periods have been restated to correct the accelerated supplier income recognition and inventory-related items in the North America division (refer to Note 1b for further details) and to separately disclose results from discontinued operations (refer to Note 7 for further details)

² Alternative Performance Measure (APM) defined and explained in the Glossary on page 56. All numbers presented are from continuing operations unless otherwise stated

Group financial summary – continuing operations

Revenue performance – continuing operations

Current trading, outlook and planning assumptions

In the 13 weeks to 31 August 2025, the Group delivered like-for-like (‘LFL’) revenue² growth of 3%. By division, the UK delivered LFL revenue growth of 3% reflecting softer passenger numbers through the summer period and a reduced level of spend per passenger growth. In North America, we delivered LFL revenue growth of 1%. Our core Travel Essentials business continued to perform well with revenue growth of 8% with InMotion down 7% and Resorts down 6%. Rest of the World delivered LFL revenue growth of 6%.

³ The Group adopted IFRS 16 ‘Leases’ with effect from 1 September 2019. The Group continues to monitor performance and allocate resources based on pre-IFRS 16 information (applying the principles of IAS 17), and therefore the results for the years ended 31 August 2025 and 31 August 2024 have been presented on both an IFRS 16 and a pre-IFRS 16 basis.

Measures described as ‘Headline’ are presented pre-IFRS 16.

For the purposes of narrative commentary on the Group’s performance and financial position, both pre-IFRS 16 and IFRS 16 measures are provided. Reconciliations from pre-IFRS 16 measures to IFRS 16 measures are provided in the Glossary on page 56. Group revenue was not affected by the adoption of IFRS 16, and therefore all references to and discussion of revenue are based on statutory measures.

⁴ Constant currency

These sales trends have continued into the first 15 weeks of the current financial year.

In the first 15 weeks of FY26, the Group delivered LFL growth of 3%, with the UK softening slightly to 2%, largely reflecting a softening in rail. North America revenue trends were in line with the last 13 weeks of FY25 with LFL growth of 1%, and Rest of the World has continued to perform well, with growth of 6%.

For the full year ending 31 August 2026, the Group expects total revenue growth of c.4-6%.

In the UK, total revenue growth is expected to be c.3-5%, in North America c.6-8%, and in the Rest of the World division c.4-6%.

Headline trading profit margin² in the UK is expected to be c.14-15%, North America c.7-8%, and c.5% in the Rest of the World. This reflects the different dynamics in each market: a year of investment in the UK, a focus on rebuilding profitability in North America and strengthening our foundations internationally.

FY26 technical planning assumptions for the Group can be found on page 12.