WH Smith to open stores in Shannon

WH SMITH, the British high-street news, book and stationery retailer, is to formalise its expansion into the Republic, with the opening of two stores at Shannon Airport before the end of the year.

The retailer, which last week reported a 4% rise in group sales and a 14% increase in group profits to £76 million (€97.4m) for the year to the end of August, first said it was considering Ireland, as well as Scandinavia and parts of mainland Europe, for external expansion last February.

All expansion plans outside Britain are being focused on its travel arm — shops located in train stations, bus stations and airport — as opposed to its high-street retail division, as this has been its main driver of growth of late.

In its last financial year, that division grew profits by more than 40%, as opposed to a 7% profit increase in the high-street division.

The two planned stores at Shannon Airport are set to open either in late November or early December and are due to be located either side of the check-in area.

A spokesperson for WH Smith suggested that the decision to expand into the Irish market could have been kept on the back- burner for longer, but was hurried along as an “opportunity arose at Shannon”.

This was in the form of a tender process opening for an existing shop lease recently vacated by the Hughes & Hughes chain and the Dublin Airport Authority expanding the retail offering at Shannon to include a number of fresh retail spaces.

WH Smith said no other expansion plans are currently in mind for the Irish market as a large-scale 39-store expansion in Britain is taking priority for its planned £32m capital expenditure plan for the next 12 months.