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WH Smith has reported a headline pre-tax profit of £61m for the year to the end of August, against a £104m loss last year, beating market expectations.
It also posted a “significant recovery” in group performance with revenue of £1.4bn, up from £886m in 2021.
The company said it would pay a final dividend of 9.1p per share, reflecting confidence in future and strong current trading.
The results were boosted by strong performance from travel, with momentum continuing into the new financial year as total Travel revenue in the 10 week period to 5 November 2022 was at 148% of 2019.
Going forward, it has a new store pipeline of 150 stores yet to open in travel, including 70 in North America, with over 125 stores due to open this financial year.
Carl Cowling, group chief executive, said: “2022 has been a successful year for WHSmith and we enter the new financial year with the group in its strongest ever position as a global travel retailer with multiple growth opportunities across the world.
“We have opened 98 new stores in the year and we have a pipeline of 150 new stores yet to open across 16 countries and in airports as varied as Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Brussels, Oslo and Melbourne.”
He added: “We continue to grow our North America business at pace and we have a very strong pipeline of new store openings. In the current financial year, our North America business is set to become larger, in profit terms, than our UK High Street business and we see significant opportunities to grow this business further.”
