WHSmith is closing two stores today as the retailer pushes ahead with the sale of its UK high street estate. The books and stationery high street chain’s branches in Essex and London will be pulling down their shutters today.
Last month, WHSmith agreed to sell its UK high street chain to investment firm Modella Capital in a deal valuing £76 million. The majority of its stores will eventually rebrand as TGJones, however, a large number of them will shut down.
Although the retailer is keeping hold of its more profitable travel locations, which include its branches in airports and train stations. These sites will remain open and will trade as WHSmith. Overall, the retailer had 480 high street stores, compared to 1,200 travel sites across 32 countries. WHSmith says its travel arm accounts for 85% of group profits.
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The Essex branch is situated on Halstead High Street and first opened back in 2008. The London branch – which is situated on Powis Street in Woolwich – confirmed it was closing back in January – so before the major shake-up was announced. The reason for the closure of this branch was due to the lease on the premises coming to an end.
WHSmith had been running this particular branch since 2008, and this one also had a Post Office. Back in January, the Post Office said that it was advertising to find shopkeepers who might be interested in taking on the branch. However, no update has been given since.
On the closure of the branch, a WHSmith said: “We can confirm that the WH Smith store in Woolwich will be closing in April. It is no longer sustainable to continue to trade from this location and the decision has been taken to close the store as a result of the forthcoming lease expiry.
The Post Office added: “The operator for Woolwich Post Office has resigned as WH Smith has made the difficult decision to close the store where the branch is based. A vacancy to operate Woolwich Post Office has been advertised on our runapostoffice.co.uk website and we are keen to hear from retailers in the area who may be interested in also operating a Post Office branch.”
“We are disappointed to be losing our presence in Woolwich and we would like to thank all our customers for their support and for shopping with us. We are also extremely grateful for the commitment of our in store colleagues who we will support with this transition and redeploy to nearby stores, where possible.”
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WHSmith opened its first store in 1792, and has been slowly closing high street locations over the last few months. More branches are set to go over the coming few months – with around 20 reportedly shutting before the summer. A few closure dates have been confirmed, and these are:
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