Popular retailer WH Smith could be set to shut almost half of its stores in another major blow for the British High Street, experts have predicted.
After announcing plans to explore a possible sale of its 500 stores across Britain in late January, WH Smith is now looking for potential buyers.
The versatile retailer, worth around £1.5billion, is reportedly in talks with private equity groups including Hilco and Alteri, the Hobbycraft owner, Modella Capital, and HMW owner, Doug Putman, with bids expected in the coming weeks.
Any buyer is likely to pay up to £100million for WH Smith’s assets which include Richard and Judy Bookclub brand, more than 200 branches and the rights to distribute Toys R Us products in the UK.
But, in another concerning prediction for the future of High Streets up and down the country, experts are sceptical over the prospect of a potential buyer being interested running 500 WH Smith branches, meaning significant closures could be on the horizon.
Sarah Montano, Professor of Retail Marketing at Birmingham University, told MailOnline: ‘I think that it is certainly a concern once a retailer is sold because that new owner is of course going to look at the profitability of that company.
‘So, yes, it’s a possibility that 250 stores could close. When these types of takeovers do occur, you often see large numbers of stores closing. The most obvious example of this is Wilko. More than 170,000 lost their jobs in retail in 2024.
‘More than 170,000 lost their jobs in retail in 2024 – that’s 37 shops per day. The expectation is that 2025 is going to be even worse. It’s the first signal that 2025 is going to be a really difficult year for retailers.
Business experts have predicted that the sale of WH Smith could lead to a significant amount of its branches closing
WH Smith, which first opened back in 1792, has long been a fixture of the British High Street
2024 was a torrid year for High Streets across the country, as increasing business rates and council taxes continue to make business unsustainable
‘Until we actually know whose going to takeover, it’s difficult to predict exactly what’s going to happen. If the owner has experience in High Streets, he could keep the stores, but if it’s someone with an out-of-town outlets business it could be a different story. If the new owner keeps the brand name WH Smith, they will still have to make changes to the business.
‘We do see a repeated pattern of stores closing when they’re sold but it does depend on what their strategic ambitions are as a retailer.’
WH Smith though, has insisted that ‘there is not a large amount of loss-making stores,’ with the company looking to close a sale soon.
Simon Wharton, retail expert and founder of an eCommerce agency, puts the company’s struggles down to a ‘textbook example of a retailer losing its identity.’
‘It (WH Smith) never quite decided what it wanted to be and so its customers didn’t really know what they were either,’ he told MailOnline.
‘WH Smith needed to embrace experiential retail, leveraging its prime locations to offer something more compelling, as well as offering a slick, user-friendly and mobile optimised shopping experience.
‘It has drifted into a middle ground that appeals to no one.’
Property experts said that WH Smith’s new owner, whoever that may be, could take advantage of an ‘opportunity to shrink’ the amount of branches in action, instead focusing on a ‘hardcore’ of 200 stores, likely to be those containing a post office.
The loss of Wilko has had a significant impact on Britain’s High Streets
WH Smith are turning their focus to their travel stores, which have become more profitable than those on the High Streets
After closing a number of its High Street chains last year, WH Smith announced plans to focus on opening stores in travel hubs such as train stations and airports.
The company’s CEO, Carl Cowling, told the BBC that WH Smith had invested more than £100million into opening new stores in airports, an area deemed more profitable than the British High Street.
2024 was another dismal year for High Streets up and down the country as they continue to become ever-more empty, boarded-up and barren.
Not only are town centres losing many of their independent businesses due to increasing business rates, council tax and a lack of footfall, but a host of nationals have decided to close branches too.
In a crushing blow, for instance, Lloyds Banking Group announced that 136 of its sites will close for good between May of this year and March 2026 – including 61 Lloyds, 61 Halifax and 14 Bank of Scotland.
Lloyds Banking Group announced that 136 of its sites will be shut between May of this year and March 2026
Just a matter of days ago, popular fashion chain Select Fashion too informed the public of the closure of 12 of its stores in the coming weeks.
And after a torrid 2024 which saw more than 13,000 stores shut up shop, Brits have been warned that there is ‘worse to come.’
An estimated 17,350 stores are expected to shut in 2025, suggest statistics produced by the Centre for Retail Research, in what has been described as a ‘tragic scenario.’
Andrew Goodacre, head of the British Independent Retailers Association, said: ‘Overall costs for independent retailers are going up and the planned increases in National Insurance, minimum wage and business rates will leave many with no choice but to shut up shop.’
WH Smith declined to comment.
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