WH Smith reports best high street performance 'in years'

WH Smith reported a jump in earnings on Wednesday, with profit across the FTSE 250 retailer improving in the six months to 29 February.

Group profit before tax rose 11% to £80m, from £72m, while diluted earnings per share were up 13% to 57.4p, from 50.8p.

Smith’s profit in travel trading was up 9%, and its high street trading saw profit improve 6%.

Sales were mixed, however, with group total sales up 4%. Travel sales were up 11%, while the high street division saw sales fall 1%.

On a like-for-like basis, group sales were up 2% with travel saled growing 5% and high street sales flat.

"The group has delivered a strong first half with both our travel and high street businesses performing well,” said group chief executive Stephen Clarke.

"The travel performance reflects our ongoing investment in the UK business and growing passenger numbers while internationally we have now secured over 200 stores, including our first airport shops in Spain and Germany.”

Clarke said flat like-for-like sales on the high street was the group’s best performance for many years, driven by a strong performance of seasonal products over the five week Christmas period.

"Stationery sales were particularly strong, driven by investment in new product ranges and both our stationery and books business continue to benefit from strong sales in adult activity books, such as colour therapy, extreme dot-to-dot and querkles,” Clarks explained.

"In March we announced our new exclusive Book Club for young adults headed by the UK's most popular vlogger and bestselling author, Zoe Sugg. The 'Zoella Book Club' will help us to further strengthen our position in a key part of the market.”

Clarke said looking ahead, WH Smith will continue to focus on profitable growth, cash generation and investing in the business to position it for the future.

WH Smith announced an interim dividend of 13.4p, up 11% on a year earlier.