Formation In 1792,
Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established the business as a news vendor in Little Grosvenor Street, London. After their deaths, the business — valued in 1812 at £1,280 () — was taken over by their youngest son
William Henry Smith, and in 1846 the firm became
W. H. Smith & Son when his only son, also named
William Henry, became a partner. The firm took advantage of the
railway boom by opening news-stands on
railway stations, beginning with
Euston in 1848. The younger W. H. Smith used the success of the firm as a springboard into politics, becoming a
Member of Parliament (MP) in 1868 his widow was created
Viscountess Hambleden in her own right; WHSmith required a new system to catalogue books. Following negotiations with
The Publishers Association, the company hired Irish Statistician
Gordon Foster as a consultant, who in 1966 created a nine-digit code for uniquely referencing books called
Standard Book Numbering or SBN. By 1967 it was in public use, and was later adopted as the International Organisation for Standardisation
ISO 2108 in 1970. This was operational until 1974, when it was finally adapted to become the
ISBN.
Expansion From the 1970s, WHSmith began to expand into other retail sectors. Their travel agency WH Smith Travel operated from 1973 In 1986, WHSmith bought a 75% controlling share of the
Our Price music retail chain; which was sold to
Camelot Music in 1998. In March 1998, the company acquired
John Menzies's retail outlets for £68m, which for many years had been the main rival to the company's railway-station outlets. This purchase also cleared the way for WHSmith's retail expansion into Scotland. Prior to the takeover, Menzies's larger Scottish shops (carrying a very similar range of products to High Street WHSmith shops elsewhere) dominated the market, and the latter's presence was minimal.
Restructuring For several years, the company's retail arm had difficulties competing with specialist book and music chains on one side and large supermarkets on the other. This led to poor financial performance, and a takeover bid in 2004 by
Permira, which fell through due to a shortfall in WHSmith's pension fund. The company reacted to this by disposing of its overseas subsidiaries and its publishing business
Hodder Headline, in order to concentrate on reforming its core businesses. In August 2006, the company demerged the retail and news distribution arms of the business into two separate companies: WH Smith plc (retail) and
Smiths News plc (newspaper and magazine distribution). In September 2010, WHSmith bought
The Gadget Shop from
The Entertainer. That year, it also bought online greeting card retailer Funky Pigeon. On 19 June 2009, WHSmith apologised after their Lewisham branch promoted a book on cellar rapist
Josef Fritzl, who held his daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years and repeatedly raped her during this period, as one of the "Top 50 Books for Dad" as a
Father's Day gift. When asked for comment, WHSmith clarified that this was "a mistake by one store" and not a national promotion. In April 2011, WHSmith agreed a deal with the legal services provider
QualitySolicitors under which QualitySolicitors would place representatives in up to 500 of its UK branches.
Past Times went into administration in January 2012, and the brand name was bought by WHSmith in March 2013. In October 2012, WHSmith faced criticism from shooters after the sale of shooting magazines to children under 14 was banned, although it is legal for children under 14 to go shooting. The decision appeared to follow a campaign by animal rights activists. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) campaigned against the ban, including a 12,000+ signature petition. In mid-November it emerged that the restrictions had been removed from all UK shooting magazines. In October 2013, WHSmith announced that it had bought the
ModelZone brand and would sell products under this brand through existing WHSmith shops. In October 2014, WHSmith announced as part of its preliminary statement that it was planning on extending its greetings card offering by launching the low-price brand
Cardmarket on a trial basis. According to the statement, these trial shops would be in low rent areas and let to WHSmith under short-term leases. The company announced in late 2018 that the trial of Cardmarket would be wound up, with the closure of the Cardmarket shops. This was in addition to the announcement of the closure for at least six WHSmith shops which were deemed economically unviable following a strategic business review. In October 2013, WHSmith also took their website offline because "unacceptable titles were appearing". These were e-books with themes of abuse. The chain was criticised in 2014 for the condition of its shops, with both analysts and customers accusing the company of under-investing in its estate.
Since 2015 In 2015, an investigation by
The Independent found that WHSmith and other airport retailers were charging VAT to shoppers travelling outside the
European Union, then claiming the
VAT back from the UK government and not passing the refund on to customers. This was made possible by the practice of scanning customer's boarding passes at the till point – solely for the benefit of the company – which made the passengers unwitting accomplices in their own deception. After a public outcry, a customer revolt in which many refused to hand over their boarding passes, and an intervention by
Parliament, the company confirmed in March 2017 that it would pass on the VAT reduction to customers spending over £6, who were travelling outside the EU. In 2015, the company was criticised for the prices charged in its branches in hospitals, after media investigations found some items to be on sale at significantly higher prices than in High Street branches. In May 2018, WHSmith apologised after it was revealed that it had made more than £700 by selling tubes of toothpaste for £7.99 through its branch in
Pinderfields Hospital,
Wakefield. The price was described as an 'error' and WHSmith promised that the proceeds from the sales would be donated to a local charity. The price was restored to £2.49, still more than three times the price of 80p charged in a nearby
Tesco. Late in 2017, the company purchased Cult Pens, a UK-based online retailer of specialist pens, for an undisclosed amount. In 2018, WHSmith acquired the brand InMotion, the largest airport-based electronics retailer in the US. InMotion expanded to operate shops within UK airports including
Heathrow,
Manchester and
Birmingham, as well as overseas in Spain and Australia. In July 2020, WHSmith announced more than 150 redundancies at its head office, representing approximately 18% of the head office workforce. In November 2020, the company announced that, after a loss of £280 million, it had decided to close 25 shops, noting that eight had been closed in 2019. In August 2020, WHSmith launched a new flagship shop in Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport, in collaboration with Well, which features an in-house pharmacy. In June 2023, the company was found to have broken the minimum wage law, having failed to pay around £1 million to 17,607 of its workers. The company said that this was because of an error related to its uniform policy, with a spokesperson stating: "Following a review with
HMRC in 2019, and in common with a number of retailers, it was brought to our attention that we had misinterpreted how the statutory wage regulations were applied to our uniform policy for staff working in our stores. This was a genuine error and it was rectified immediately with all colleagues reimbursed in 2019". WHSmith announced in June 2023 that it would not be opening any more shops on
High Streets in the UK and would instead add outlets in airports, railway stations and in the United States and Europe. Also in June, toy retailer
Toys "R" Us announced plans to open nine concessions in WHSmith shops, marking the return of the brand's physical presence in the UK after its own premises closed in 2018. In December 2023, the logo was changed as part of a rebranding trial. The changed shops, which included those in
York,
Canterbury and
Preston, dropped the word "Smith" in favour of "WHS".
Focus on travel retail is now the headquarters for TGJones and additional offices for WHSmith. In January 2025, WHSmith was reported to be in talks to sell its high street business, with around 500 shops, the website and the partnership with Toys "R" Us. The more profitable travel retail business (which has outlets in railway stations, airports, ports, hospitals and on motorways), the brand and Funky Pigeon would be unaffected by this. The company said that, in the previous financial year, it had derived 85% of its revenues from its travel operations. In March 2025, WHSmith announced that it was selling its high street business to
Modella Capital. The sale was completed in June 2025 for a reported price of "up to £40million". The shops were rebranded to
TGJones, whilst the current operator retains the WHSmith brand for its travel business. Following concerns from the
Communication Workers Union (CWU), representing
Post Office and
Royal Mail staff, that the sale may cause "postal deserts" given the large proportion of branches inside WHSmith shops, Modella stated they planned to make few changes, retaining Post Offices and Toys "R" Us sections within shops. In August 2025, WHSmith completed the sale of Funky Pigeon to
Card Factory for £24 million. In July 2025, WHSmith signed a deal to open eight outlets at the new international terminal at
John F. Kennedy airport, New York. The next month, the company announced that North American profit forecasts had been overstated by about £30 million, resulting in about a £600 million one-day fall (about 35%) in its share price. An investigation by
Deloitte into the circumstances was initiated. The result of the review was announced in November 2025, citing a "target-driven performance culture" and a "limited level of group oversight of the finance processes in North America", and leading to the resignation of group CEO Carl Cowling with immediate effect. Andrew Harrison, CEO of the group's UK division, was appointed group CEO on an interim basis whilst a permanent CEO was sought. ==Television==