WHSmith has fallen into the red at the full-year mark as the retailer’s sales across travel and the high street were “heavily impacted” by the pandemic.

WHSmith posted a headline pre-tax loss of £69m in the year to August 31 compared with a pre-tax profit of £155m the previous year.

Group pre-tax loss for the period was £226m, down from a profit of £135m the previous year.

The retailer’s group sales declined 27% year on year to £1bn as travel sales fell 32% to £553m.

WHSmith’s high street sales fell 19% to £468m but the retailer said it has seen a “steady recovery” in this division of its business since the end of the first lockdown, with sales last month at 92% of 2019 levels compared with 35% in May.

WHSmith has been classed as an essential retailer and 558 of its high street stores are currently trading.

The retailer also hailed the resilience of its North American travel division, noting that as the majority of flights are domestic sales recovery was ahead of its UK travel division. Sales across the retailer’s North American business stood at 44% of 2019 levels in October.

WHSmith said it had a robust balance sheet with cash on deposit of £83m and £320m of undrawn facilities.

Chief executive Carl Cowling said: “The group delivered a strong first-half performance and traded strongly prior to the outbreak of Covid-19. Since March, we have been heavily impacted by the pandemic. Despite the many challenges faced, we responded quickly and took decisive actions to protect our colleagues, customers and the business, including strengthening our financial position. 

“While passenger numbers continue to be significantly impacted in the UK, our North American business, where 85% of passengers are domestic, is beginning to see some encouraging signs of recovery. In addition, we continue to open new stores in the US and win significant tenders across major US airports.  

“In high street, we had seen a steady recovery and we were well set up both in stores and online as we went into the second lockdown. We currently have 558 stores open.

“We have a robust plan across all our businesses focusing on cost management and initiatives within our control which support us in the immediate term and position us well to emerge stronger as our markets recover.”

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