WHSmith

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WHSmith

logo
legal form Public Limited Company
ISIN GB00B2PDGW16
founding 1792
Seat Swindon , UK
management Carl Cowling, CEO
Number of employees 14,321
sales 1397000000 GBP (2019)
Branch Book trade , retail
Website http://www.whsmithplc.co.uk
As of December 31, 2019

WH Smith, Pontefract , West Yorkshire .

WHSmith is one of the UK's leading book retailers , based in Swindon , England . WHSmith operates over 800 branches at airports, train stations, motorway service stations and hospitals worldwide, as well as over 600 stores in UK city centers. In addition to books, daily newspapers and magazines, WHSmith offers stationery and toys in its branches.

WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is part of the FTSE 250 index .

history

The company was founded in 1792 as a newspaper business by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in London . In 1828 her youngest son William Henry Smith took over the business, who made it known as WHSmith . Taking advantage of the expansion of the railway network , he began in 1848, together with his own son William Henry Smith II, to open several newspaper kiosks at train stations in Great Britain. From 1860 to 1961, WHSmith also operated a lending library . The company was solely owned by the Smith family for over a century.

With the transformation of the company into a stock corporation in 1949, the ownership structure changed, so that the influence of the Smith family on the company's fortunes gradually waned. The last member of the family left the WHSmith Board of Directors in 1996.

In 1966 WHSmith first introduced a nine-digit standard book number, abbreviated to "SBN", on which today's ISBN system goes back.

Branch development and locations

Outside the UK, WHSmith has operations in Australia , Brazil , China , Germany and India , for example . The approximately 280 international branches in a total of 29 countries are mainly located at airports .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Annual Report and Accounts 2019. From : WHSmith PLC website, accessed March 7, 2020.
  2. ↑ Our Company On: WHSmith PLC website, accessed March 5, 2019.
  3. ^ A b History of WHSmith. From: WHSmith PLC website, accessed March 5, 2019.
  4. ^ ISBN History. On: US ISBN agency website, accessed March 5, 2019.
  5. ↑ International Opportunities. From: WHSmith PLC website, accessed March 5, 2019.
  6. ↑ The chain is expanding. On: Börsenblatt, accessed on March 5, 2019.

Web links

Commons : WH Smith  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files