Trading Statement

RNS Number : 1487G

WH Smith PLC

27 January 2010

 



                                        27 January 2010

WH SMITH PLC

TRADING STATEMENT

Good performance in line with expectations; confident in the outcome for the full year

WH Smith PLC is today providing an update on its trading performance for the 11 weeks and the 21 weeks to 23 January 2010.

The Group delivered a good trading performance. In our High Street division we successfully continued to deliver our strategy and our Travel division made further good progress. In both divisions, gross margins increased and costs were tightly controlled.  Group total sales were down 2% with like for like (LFL) sales down 4% for the 21 weeks. 

In High Street, LFL sales for the 11 and 21 weeks were down 5% and 4% respectively, reflecting our strategy to rebalance the mix of our business towards our core categories. Gross margin improved as expected year on year. Excluding Entertainment, LFL sales for the 11 and 21 weeks were down 1%.

In Travel, we continued to perform well with total sales up 2% and LFL sales down 2% for the 21 weeks accompanied by further improvements in gross margin.

The Group continues to be highly cash generative.  Further to our announcement on 15 October 2009 of our intention to return up to £35m of cash to shareholders via a rolling share buyback programme, as of 22 January 2010, we had purchased approximately 6.0 million shares to date at an average price of 512.941p.

Commenting on today's announcement, Kate Swann, Group Chief Executive said:

"The Group delivered a good performance during the period. We made further progress in our High Street business and our Travel business continues to perform well, despite soft passenger numbers at airports.

"Although we remain cautious about consumer spending, we have planned accordingly and are confident in the outcome for the full year."

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Enquiries:
WH Smith PLC
Sarah Heath	Media Relations	020 7851 8850
Mark Boyle	Investor Relations	020 7851 8820
Brunswick
Tom Buchanan		020 7404 5959

Advance Notice of Results

WH Smith PLC will announce its Interim Results 2010 on Thursday 22 April 2010.  

 

END

 

 

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