WHSmith restructuring plans put 1,500 jobs at risk as sales plummet

The retailer said the majority of these roles will be in travel locations – where sales were down 73% year on year in July – due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis on commuting and travel.

The company also said there will be changes to the management structure of high street stores that will result in redundancies.

WHSmith said it plans to close 14 small stores in travel locations such as bus and train stations.

Since non-essential stores were permitted to reopen in June, the retailer has reopened all of its 575-strong high street store estate but just 53% of its travel locations have reopened so far. 

Group revenue was initially expected to be between 80% and 85% from April until August 31 against the same period in the previous year. However, WHSmith said it had seen a gradual recovery with group sales down 57% year on year in July. This was largely driven by high street stores where sales were down 25% in July.

WHSmith said it expects a full-year loss for the year ending August 31 between £70m and £75m.

Chief executive Carl Cowling said: “In our travel business, while we are beginning to see early signs of recovery in some of our markets, the speed of recovery continues to be slow. 

“At the same time, while there has been some progress in our high street business, it does continue to be adversely affected by low levels of footfall. 

“As a result, we now need to take further action to reduce costs across our businesses. I regret that this will have an impact on a significant number of colleagues whose roles will be affected by these necessary actions and we will do everything we can to support them at this challenging time.

“While we are mindful of the continuing uncertainties that exist, we are a resilient and versatile business. The operational actions we are taking along with the financing arrangements that are in place put us in a strong position to navigate this time of uncertainty and we are well-positioned to benefit in due course from the recovery of our key markets.”