WH Smith has fallen into a deep loss in the past 12 months after the company was forced to close hundreds of stores across the country, and its travel business took an especially bad hit.
The retailer said it had lost £226 million before tax in the 12 months to August, a swing from a £135 million profit a year earlier.
Revenue dropped 33% to just over £1 billion, WH Smith revealed on Thursday. Analysts had been expecting a pre-tax loss of around £70 million to £75 million.
WH Smith chief executive Carl Cowling said: “Since March, we have been heavily impacted by the pandemic.”
He added: “While passenger numbers continue to be significantly impacted in the UK, our North American business, where 85% of passengers are domestic, is beginning to see some encouraging signs of recovery. In addition, we continue to open new stores in the US and win significant tenders across major US airports.
“In high street, we had seen a steady recovery and we were well set up both in stores and online as we went into the second lockdown. We currently have 558 stores open.
“We have a robust plan across all our businesses focusing on cost management and initiatives within our control which support us in the immediate term and position us well to emerge stronger as our markets recover.”
