W. H. Smith
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | : |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | London (1792) |
| Headquarters | Swindon, United Kingdom |
|
Number of locations
|
1,300 (612 high street & 768 travel) (August 2016) |
|
Key people
|
Henry Staunton (Chairman) Stephen Clarke (CEO) |
| Revenue | £1,212 million (2016) |
| £133 million (2016) | |
| Profit | £108 million (2016) |
|
Number of employees
|
14,000 (2016) |
| Website | www.whsmithplc.co.uk |
WHSmith plc (also known as WHS or colloquially as Smith's, and formerly W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers and entertainment products. Its headquarters are in Swindon, Wiltshire. Smith's is listed on the and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It was the first chain store company in the world, and was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book catalogue system.
In 1792, Henry Walton Smith 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 (equivalent to £76,886 in 2015) 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 news-stands on railway stations, beginning with Euston in 1848. In 1850, the firm opened depots in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. It also ran a circulating library service for a century, from 1860 to 1961. The younger W. H. Smith also 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.
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Wikipedia