Vision & Values
We're a big business with a big heart and we're excited about our bright future ahead - and it's all thanks to our clear vision and strong values.
Our STORY so far…
Our journey has taken us from our very first store in London to hundreds of locations in almost every corner of the world. Along the way, we’ve also been responsible for some of retail’s biggest and most exciting moments too. Here’s what we’ve achieved since 1792…
230 years in milestones
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1792
Henry and Anna Walton Smith open a small news vendors on Little Grosvenor Street in London.
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1848
We open our very first book stall just down the road in Euston.
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1850
Our hard work pays off as we’re recognised as the principal newspaper distributor in the country.
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1903
We sail our big idea for retail across the channel and open our first overseas store in Paris.
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1973
We develop our iconic logo, pairing brown and orange in true 70’s style.
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1995
We take the very first secure online order in the UK on 27th April, blazing the trail for online shopping across the country.
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1997
We help our UK Travel Retail arm spread its wings as a separate business.
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1999
We make sure we’re ready for the internet shopping boom by launching WHSmith Online at whsmith.co.uk
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2006
We de-merged our Retail and News distribution businesses.
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2007
We deliver the big news that we're welcoming Post Offices into our High Street stores, cementing our position at the heart of the communities we serve.
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2010
We acquire funkypigeon.com and get set to fly into the world of online personalised gifting and cards.
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2012
Over in Australia, we acquire a cafe business called ‘Fresh+’, and begin our journey in food retailing.
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2014
A momentous year as we open our 100th international store.
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2016
We deliver even more big news - that another 61 Post Offices are joining our High Street stores.
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2017
We celebrate our 225th anniversary with a commitment to raising £2m for charities this year.
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2018
We take another big hop on our overseas journey by acquiring InMotion, a pure play travel retailer based in US airports.
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2019
Carl Cowling is appointed Group Chief Executive. Across the pond, we acquire another US based travel retailer, Marshall Retail Group (MRG), with a Support Centre based in Las Vegas.
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2020
As Covid-19 brings the world to a halt, we keep our doors open for local communities, support frontline NHS workers in our hospital stores, and donate thousands of our products to key workers and good causes.
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2021
Our journey picks up pace as we announce that we have won 30 new tech stores across UK airports under our InMotion brand, making us the largest tech retailer in travel locations globally.
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2022
We celebrate our 230th birthday and close the year in our strongest ever position as a global travel retailer with a further 150 stores won and due to open across the globe.
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2023
We open our new flagship one-stop-shop for travel essentials at Birmingham airport – our largest UK Travel store – with an unrivalled world-class format which is set to redefine the travel retail experience across UK airports.
Our responsibilities
We’re proud to be the kind of business who always does the right thing when it comes to our people, our communities, and our planet.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
It is well know that diverse teams perform better and we want our organisation to reflect the diversity of our customer base and the markets we operate in.
Locations
We can take you from our brilliant website at whsmith.co.uk, to our UK retail stores, to our head offices in London, Swindon and Sydney, to InMotion HQ in Las Vegas, and almost everywhere in between.
