WH Smith Statistics

WH Smith sales statistics

WH Smith sells 30 million books each year in their stores
20% of Brits reading a book on their summer holidays will have bought it in a WH Smith store
WH Smith sells 18,000 magazines every hour
In 2022, WH Smith generated £1.4 billion in revenue
This was a 58% increase on the previous year’s revenue of £886 million
The company made a profit of £63 million
This was a huge £179 million swing from the £116 million loss in 2021

WH Smith was founded in London in 1792
It was founded by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna
It was taken over by his son William Henry Smith upon their deaths in 1812
William Henry Smith’s son, also named William Henry Smith, came on as a partner at the firm in 1846
A WH Smith executive called Tim Waterstone founded Waterstone’s bookstore in 1982
WH Smith bought Waterstone in 1989 and sold it again in 1998
Also in 1998, WH Smith bought over the John Menzies stores which were the leading competitors in Scotland, clearing the path for WH Smith north of the border

WH Smith came up with the idea of standardizing book numbers in 1966 with SBN (Standard Book Numbering)
WH Smith was modernizing their system – moving to a computerized system to maintain its stock, ordering, and itinerary
They came up with the SBN as a way to categorize books so that they were easier to track
Other book retailers wanted a way to classify their books and an international system was established in 1970 as ISO 2108
In 1974, it became the ISBN and is still in use today

WH Smith PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is part of the FTSE mid-250 Index
It is listed on the Stock Exchange under SMWH

WH Smith has at least 1,680 stores in 29 countries around the world
WH Smith opened 98 new stores in 2021 after travel started up again after the pandemic
Outside of the UK, WH Smith opened 38 new stores in 2021
WH Smith also won the rights to a further 64 stores around the world that are yet to open
Although 17 of their more traditional stores closed back home in the UK
This looks to symbolize the new direction in which the company will move away from the high street and focus more on airports around the world
59% of the UK population visits a WH Smith store each year
More than 90% of the UK population live within a 20 minute drive of a WH Smith store

Region	Stores	Countries
UK	1,100
USA and Canada	290
Europe	109	13 countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden
Middle East	40	6 countries: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE
India	40
China and South East Asia	50	5 countries: China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Phillippines and Singapore
Australia	60