WH Smith Profits Up But Sales Fall In Run Up To Christmas

Retail heavyweight WH Smith has today announced an increase in profits for the year on the end of August after cost savings and improvements in efficiency helped offset a downturn in sales in the newsagents and media retailer.

Profits prior to tax were recorded as being up by just under 30% at £67 million for the period reflecting strong growth in its stationery and magazines divisions. However rather worryingly there was also reported a 4% downturn in overall sales, with high street outlets the worst hit.

The official line from within WH Smith comes to suggest that as part of its brand realignment back towards books and magazines rather than DVDs and music lines, there has been an inevitable fall in sales overall, despite growth in more substantial margin products.

The release of the new Harry Potter novel was thought to be a strong contributor to sales for WH Smith over the last quarter, betraying underlying sluggish growth in book and magazine sales across other products.

Meanwhile the travel division of the company was also reported as having performed beyond previous expectations with a rapid increase in profits to £36 million before tax was paid in reflection of a strong summer season and growing customer loyalty.

WH Smith has said today that it is delighted to have built up some momentum prior to the Christmas period in which it expects that sales will grow sharply to reflect its current readjustment efforts within book and gift sales, as well as in its traditionally strong CD and DVD product catalogue.

Whilst is acknowledged that the market would be tight, particularly within its core product offerings, it suggested that there had been more than adequate strategies implemented behind the scenes to help tide over sales during the festive period.

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