WHSmith boss Carl Cowling: ‘We’re confident that travel is back for good’

While Heathrow bosses warned yesterday that the summer travel “bubble” may burst and create a “winter freeze”, Cowling maintained that the industry will see sustained success this year.

Heathrow said it predicts passenger numbers to be about 65% of pre-pandemic levels this year, but Cowling told Retail Week he predicts a blockbuster summer with sales in its airport stores “significantly ahead” of 2019 levels.

“We’re really confident about the summer,” Cowling said. “I think the first thing to say about Heathrow is that they always tend to be quite cautious in their outlook.

“What we’re seeing is the forward bookings, and everything that the airlines and travel tour operators are saying shows that there’s such a huge pent-up demand and bookings are continuing way past the summer through into the winter.

“We feel pretty confident that the recovery is going to hold – I think we’re going to see really, really great summer sales through airports and I think that’s going to continue through into Christmas.”

“I think we’re going to see really, really great summer sales through airports and I think that’s going to continue through into Christmas”

Carl Cowling, WHSmith

WHSmith, which operates 1,162 travel stores globally across 29 countries, recorded travel trading profit of £10m in the first half and said that the business had already seen a sharp uptick in holidaymakers visiting its stores over the Easter period.

“Despite the Omicron variant impacting us in our second quarter, it was actually short-lived, so we’re back into profit; revenue and travel are recovering really well,” Cowling said.

“In fact, in the last eight weeks, our total travel revenue was at 114% of 2019, so we’re quite significantly ahead of 2019.”

Summer of sales

The retailer plans to maximise sales over the summer period and is in the process of hiring an extra 800 employees to its airport stores to help with this.

WHSmith has also refreshed its stores with new point-of-sale systems, and refreshed food and beverage ranges, as well as expanding its health and beauty category, particularly in its “one-stop-shop” stores – which combine its food, entertainment, pharmacy, health and beauty, and electronics offers in one place.

Cowling added: “These stores are good for us, clearly they’re good for customers because they get all of their travel essentials under one roof, and they’re good for the landlord because they’re able to get all of the essentials categories in less space. That gives them more opportunities to put space towards kind of the fashion retail categories or food and beverage, so I think you’ll see more and more of these stores over time.”

Cowling said he does not have a “cap” on the number of one-stop shops WHSmith will roll out, as he believes them to be the perfect format for both airports and train stations.

While Cowling is placing his bets on the return of air travel, he is also keen to take advantage of leisure travel in the UK through railway station stores.

“For us, leisure travel is the safest bet,” he said. “Commuter travel makes about 1% of our sales, as it’s really hard to get customers in that rush-hour pinch point.

“We’ve seen great sales at rail stores now. Some of our weekends have been soaring and as we’ve improved our food ranges, we think the summer will be really strong for us.”

Looking forward, WHSmith plans to continue to capitalise on travel retail through the expansion of its store estate.

The retailer has 125 stores in the pipeline over the next three years, including 63 in the US and 31 in Spain.

Additional stores are secured for countries including Malaysia, Australia and Sweden later this year.

With other retailers gearing up for a “summer of fun”, Cowling’s confidence could see the business reach new heights this year.

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