High Street Retailer WH Smith has announced plans to close 25 of its stores as it seeks to save £34m over the next three years.
Announcing its annual financial results, the retailer reported a headline loss of £69m for the 12 months to August 2020 compared with a £155m profit in the previous period with sales falling by 43 per cent.
The Group operates more than 1,000 UK stores and a further 500-plus overseas, and said that it also plans to renegotiate the leases on 120 of its stores this year and a further 300 in the following two years
Carl Cowling, Group Chief Executive, commented:
“The Group delivered a strong first half performance and traded strongly prior to the outbreak ofCovid-19. Since March, we have been heavily impacted by the pandemic. Despite the manychallenges faced, we responded quickly and took decisive actions to protect our colleagues,customers and the business, including strengthening our financial position.”
“While passenger numbers continue to be significantly impacted in the UK, our North American business, where 85% of passengers are domestic, is beginning to see some encouraging signs of recovery. In addition, we continue to open new stores in the US and win significant tenders across major US airports.”
“In High Street, we had seen a steady recovery and we were well set up both in stores and online as we went into the second lockdown. We currently have 558 stores open.
“We have a robust plan across all our businesses focusing on cost management and initiatives within our control which support us in the immediate term and position us well to emerge stronger as our markets recover.
“We are a resilient and agile business. The actions we have taken have put us in a strong position to navigate this time of uncertainty and we are well positioned to benefit as our markets return to growth.”
