‘Girl on the Train’ delivers profits for WH Smith

Bumper sales of the Fifty Shades of Grey series and publishing phenomenon The Girl on the Train helped boost profits at the Irish arm of WH Smith. Accounts filed by WH Smith Ireland Ltd show pre-tax profit rose 20% to €1.8m last year.

Revenues went up by 23% from €19.29m to €23.69m in the 12 months to the end of August. WH Smith won the contract to run shops in Dublin airport’s Terminal One in August 2013 and it benefited from the record 25m passengers that went through the airport in 2015.

In 2009, W H Smith opened its first two stores at Shannon Airport before opening its outlets in Dublin airports.

The WH Smith business here was also helped by the books market growing here by 10.8% in value terms last year and by 4.4% in volume terms, according to the Neilsen annual book sales report for 2015.

According to Neilsen, the year’s big hitters for the year included Anne Enright’s The Green Road, Until Victory Always by Jim McGuinness, Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, and Joe Duffy’s The Children of the Rising.

Neilsen figures show that The Girl on the Train outsold Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian by more than two to one to take the top spot in the adult fiction category.

Staff costs at WH Smith last year increased from €2.32m to €2.59m. Numbers employed by the firm last year rose from 74 to 87. Rental payments jumped from €4.3m to €5.34m.

Its cash pile increased almost four-fold to €6.46m, and the profit last year takes account of non-cash deprecation costs of €607,151.

It increased its gross profit from €9.74m to €11.92m after its cost of sales increased from €9.55m to €11.7m.

The firm recorded after-tax profits of €1.52m, after incurring a tax charge of €287,723.

In the UK, the 224-year-old group said in January that growth was driven by the recent trend towards ‘colour therapy’, including colouring books for adults.

WH Smith’s main street stores in Britain, which sell stationery, magazines, confectionery and books from over 600 outlets, reported flat like-for-like sales, with sales down 1% over the 20 weeks to January 16. However, its performance over the Christmas period was better, with like-for-like sales up 2% over the five week period.

Additional reporting: Reuters