The UK’s book market is on track for growth this year, according to the boss of WH Smith, one of the country’s biggest booksellers, as Britney Spears’ memoir and Richard Osman’s latest crime novel boost sales ahead of Christmas.
Robust book sales and a rebound in travel that lifted sales at its outlets in airports and train stations drove a 75% jump in pre-tax profits to £110m in the year to 31 August, as sales rose 28% to £1.8bn.
“There are lots of great titles out there,” said Carl Cowling, the chief executive of WH Smith, referring to the slate of Christmas books on offer that include a new cookbook from Jamie Oliver, Osman’s fourth crime novel, The Last Devil to Die, and Spears’ The Woman in Me. “It’s not going to be up by much but it’s a good robust market.”
He said WH Smith was doing well with sets of cheaper books for children and now had a specialist bookshop in every UK airport.
WH Smith’s confidence in the books market comes after the publisher Bloomsbury said it had made record profits in the first half of the year thanks to a boom in fantasy fiction and continuing strong sales of Harry Potter titles.
Airports led the way for recovery at WH Smith’s travel outlets, with total sales up 48% as passengers flooded back to international travel after the pandemic lockdowns. That compared with a 15% lift in train station stores.
Cowling said WH Smith’s efforts to broaden its ranges, bringing in more health and beauty products and technology – such as phone charging cables and headphones – had supported growth.
The group’s biggest growth story is overseas, however. Sales doubled at the WH Smith’s European and international travel stores outside the US and Canada, as it opened new outlets in Belgium, Italy, Spain and Sweden, while North American sales rose 32% to become the group’s second-largest division after UK travel and ahead of UK high streets. A further 50 North American stores are expected to open in the year ahead.
The company said it would pay £27m in dividends to shareholders as it generated large amounts of cash and had a path for expansion in airports around the world. Sales on UK high streets slipped back by 1% to £469m while profits were down more than 4% to £43m.
The chain has long been criticised for cost cutting in its stores, which rely heavily on self-service checkouts. Cowling said he expected only a handful of UK high street stores to close in the year ahead as WH Smith had short leases on the vast majority of its sites, all of which were profitable, and it was cutting rents by an average of 50% in negotiations.
He said WH Smith’s position on high streets had also been helped by rivals’ problems. “We have quite a weak competitor set – Paperchase has left the high street,” he said.
