When was whsmith established

Smith , inherited the business. In , the partnership became a private limited liability company, W. On the death of the third W. Smith in , his brother David Smith took over. The company went public and was listed on the stock exchange, with many staff buying shares. In , W. From the s onwards, the company diversified into several areas, starting with WHSmith Travel, which operated from to In , the company bought a minority stake in ITV which led them to found several cable channels and create a WHSmith TV division within the company; these channels were later closed or merged with other companies due to increased competition.

The existing W. Printing operations ceased in , but the company once again expanded into publishing from to with Hodder Headline. International ventures included retail branches in Paris from and Brussels From the s until the late s, W. During the s, the company operated the Sims chain in the Netherlands in partnership with Elsevier. In , the company acquired John Menzies retail outlets, which was their main competition at the time: this led to an expansion of shops throughout Scotland.

The company took a very moral stand on the type of books that they stocked and each volume was carefully vetted, even adverts came under close attention.

In W H Smith Snr. In they started a lending library which lasted until In the same year the firm acquired its own printing works. In W H Smith Jnr. By Smith Jnr. He led the House of Commons under Salisbury till his death in You decide you need something to keep you occupied for the journey.

At the airport, we are all a captive, trapped audience. Often, in such situations, people are driven by impulse purchases and immediate needs, and are less price sensitive and more focused on convenience.

But if you multiply that across all of the customers that are coming through and paying high margins, they could earn some good profits. Brian agrees. In some ways, this niche but highly profitable sector is shielded, and can even benefit from, downturns that have hurt the high street. You can read our waste electrical and electronic equipment WEEE policy online. The WHSmith Blog features lots of exciting content about our products, including author interviews, recipes, how-tos, book club content and more.

You may find the answer to your query on our FAQs page. Our contact centre is open Monday - Friday from 9am - 5pm, not including public holidays.