WHSmith’s travel division overtook its traditional high street presence for the first time this year, contributing the lion’s share of both profits and sales.

Travel revenue and trading profit both outpaced the performance of its high street stores, up 9% and 10% respectively.

Chief executive Steve Clarke said today that while travel would continue to exceed high street, the business was working on how to improve its high street performance by experimenting with new formats. 

Former travel boss Carl Cowling has been tasked with revitalising the high street part of the business. As my colleague Emily Hardy points out, if his success in travel is anything to go by, Smith’s high street shops can fly high again.

In other news, N Brown has partnered with Amazon Fashion and Tesco-target Booker’s profit have surged.

Today in numbers

£1.4m

The losses Warehouse has racked up over the past six years on sales of £804.2m.

4400%

The increase in the number of connected home products on sale at John Lewis, from three in 2013 to 135 now.

Tomorrow’s agenda

There are no formal updates on the agenda tomorrow but look out for a special personalisation edition of The Retail Week.

Becky Waller-Davies, reporter

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