International Candidate Booklet

Welcome to your WHSmith

Welcome and thank you for considering WHSmith International as your next career journey. You will find lots of interesting facts and information about WHSmith and our business across Europe.

If you’re flying off on a European trip, chances are you’ll come across one of our stores on your journey! With over 150 stores across the continent, we operate in some of the busiest travel hubs in central Europe. You’ll find us in airports across Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, and The Netherlands – the list goes on! In fact, we are now in c.30 different countries, with nearly half of those located in Europe. Since joining WHSmith in 2018, I have been incredibly proud of how the international team has evolved.

None of this would be possible without the fantastic support and commitment from our team in the UK and across the world. So, why should you consider WHSmith International? Our customer proposition is tailored in each location we operate in which compliments the travelling experience. Whether its hot dogs and ice cream in Norway, or luxury chocolates in Belgium, our stores look and feel exciting and relevant to each market. With our ambitious global expansion plans, there’s never been a more exciting time to work in our international team!

From the first WHSmith shop in Little Grosvenor Street in London, in 1792, through to airports, hospitals, train stations and high streets, it's been an amazing journey. We've grown and evolved our business with successful brands like InMotion and developed partnerships with Costa Coffee, M&S with exciting plans to follow.

We're growing fast - and changing every day.

230+ years in milestones

1792

Henry and Anna Walton Smith open a small news vendors on Little Grosvenor Street in London.
1903

We sail our big idea for retail across the channel and open our first overseas store in Paris.
2012

Over in Australia, we acquire a cafe business called ‘Fresh+’ and begin our journey in food retailing.
2014

A momentous year as we open our 100th international store.
2016

WHSmith opened its first ever store in Alicante Airport Spain. Which was the beginning of our exciting journey…
2017

We celebrate our 225th anniversary with a commitment to raising £2m for charities this year.
2018

We take another big hop on our overseas journey by acquiring InMotion, a pure play travel retailer based in US airports.
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.
2022

WHSmith secured an additional 30 stores across Spain, expanding our profile into 15 Major Airports.
2023

It was the year of the food! Opening our first store in Norway selling hotdogs and ice cream as well as localised chocolate sin Belgium! Forever expanding the WHSmith offer
2023

All about tech! Expanding our InMotion business across Europe, opening stores in Ireland, Italy and Sweden.
2024

Eastern Europe was next, opening our flagship WHSmith store at 3,000SQFT , in Budapest Airport, Hungary.

KEY FACTS

There's more to WHSmith than meets the eye! Here are some of our most interesting facts.

1in5

people reading a book on their summer holidays will have bought it from one of our stores

30M

books are sold in our stores each year

3.8M

gallons of water sold across our Spanish stores in 2023

240M+

travellers come into contact with our brand every year

140M

customers are served in our high street stores each year

99%

of our waste was diverted from landfill last year

OUR BRANDS & PARTNERSHIPS

Direct Business

As we’ve grown, we’ve teamed up with amazing names like InMotion, The Bookshop and Curi.o.city. So when you join us, you’ll quickly discover that there are endless ways to make your career journey better.

Curi.o.city by WHSmith is a premium gifting brand and franchise across the Middle East. Customers can pick up everything from clothing and gourmet food and drink to plush toys and stationery, from locally sourced, exclusive and iconic brands.

Joint Venture & Franchise

We seek to actively manage our space in stores and have developed a number of key partnerships with retail brands to maximise our products and service offer to customers.

Working with these partnered brands allows us to respond to growth opportunities and changing needs of our customers, delivering to our formats and ranges.

THE INTERVIEW PROCESS

Before the Interview

It’s a good idea to visit at least one of our stores to build your knowledge of how our business works and the products we sell. Also take a look at our social channels and websites to see what exciting things are going on.

Our values will shape the interview, so have a think about where you’ve demonstrated the values in your life, your passion and enthusiasm will shine through. Take time to look over the Job Advert and think about your transferable skills and anything you’ve not done before so that you can chat about the ‘stretch’ that the role is going to give you.

We often get asked what to wear for an interview, and for us it’s about you looking smart and feeling comfortable so that you can be at your best.

During the Interview

The interview process is one stage; you’ll be invited to store to meet a member of the Store Leadership team. This is an opportunity to meet who you could be working with and the environment you could be working in.

Think about what makes you, you! What are you going to bring to the role and the business both from a practical and expertise point of view as well as your personality.

After the Interview

If you demonstrate the skills for the role, one of our team will be in touch to discuss the next steps of the process.

Or if this was not your time with us – you can receive some great feedback to support you in your professional development.

Keep a look out for opportunities which could be right for you at www.whsmithcareers.co.uk

Careers & Development

Join us and you’ll discover a career journey that could take you anywhere.

We know that everyone is unique, and that we all learn in different ways so we have lots of development opportunities available to you. We’ve created an induction programme to help you get the best start possible and here’s our three top tips to making it a success.

Be curious - ask lots of questions and take advantage of the expertise in your team and new network.
Never stop connecting - focus on building relationships with people who can support you in your role.
Take action - use your initiative to gain new experiences, learn as you go, and ask for feedback along the way.

We are proud to see our people grow within our stores and if you are looking to develop a career, here are the development levels that we have available across our many different formats.

International

Sales and Stock Assistant

Supervisor

Store Manager

Area Manager

InMotion

Sales Assistant

Supervisor

Deputy Store Manager

Store Manager

Head Office

Buying Assistant

Buyer

Buying Manager

DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

Our people come from a variety of cultures, and have lots of different backgrounds and views. So do our customers in the communities we serve right around the world. No wonder we believe that diverse teams perform better.

We want everyone to feel welcome

It’s important to us that you feel you can be yourself at work. So we’d love to get to know more about your own unique experiences — wherever you’re based and whatever role you move into. In fact, equity is something that’s really close to our hearts. It runs through everything we do, and we make sure that all of our policies, procedures and working practices include everyone.

We’ve got lots to celebrate

When it comes to diversity, there’s loads going on. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee make good things happen around the business, and partners like the Stonewall and Business Disability Forum help a lot. But it means more to us than initiatives or practices. We’ll always make sure we support and celebrate you and your colleagues, because that’s how our business will grow in the right way for everyone.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY PROMISE

Pretty much everybody wants a better society and a cleaner environment. We feel the same. That’s why we’ve outlined our business goals and the contribution we can all make to achieving them.

There are three main themes for the areas where we think we can make a meaningful difference. Here they are, along with what we’ve promised to do:

Planet

Planet means we’re actively reducing our carbon emissions, minimising our packaging and waste, and ensuring sustainable consumption. We’re aiming to be at net zero emissions for all our activities by 2050.

People

People refers to how we’re reducing inequality and promoting inclusive and sustainable growth, and decent work for everyone. And we make sure that you have your say in how that’s done.

Community

Community is about our charitable activities and making a positive impact for our local communities. Raising money for charity and donating books to children to help with literacy is just one part of it.

PARTNERSHIPS & CHARITY SUPPORT

From support centres to hospitals, we want to make a positive impact wherever we are. That could be through fundraising or volunteering, or helping children develop a love of reading — which is right up our street.

Our charity partnerships

We’ve raised over £12m for charities and other good causes over the past 10 years, and our teams love helping out.

We raise funds through customer donations, sales of specially commissioned products and all sorts of staff activities. And one of our most popular initiatives is selling charity cards, soft toys and more at Christmas.

Supporting children’s literacy

It shouldn’t be a big surprise as a major retailer of books and stationery that we’re particularly passionate about literacy and life-long learning. We’ve worked with the National Literacy Trust for 20 years to support their work with schools and disadvantaged children in deprived areas in the UK.

Together, we support a Young Readers’ Programme which motivates children and young people to read for enjoyment. We have helped to deliver fun literacy-focused events for over 30,000 children and given away over 75,000 books.

We love celebrating World Book Day too! Every year children redeem their £1 book vouchers with WHSmith, enabling them to choose one of the special World Book Day books or offset the cost against any of our children’s books. Our store teams get involved with fun events, such as author signing sessions, tours of our bookshops and fancy dress. We also give vouchers to schools through the WHSmith Trust, so they can buy more books for their libraries.

BENEFITS, REWARD & RECOGNITION

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*For each of our benefits, you’ll receive them in line with legislation appropriate to your location

For every career journey, there's WHSmith