Spoofs of Enid Blyton books such as Five Go Gluten Free, and adult humour titles including The Ladybird Book of Mindfulness helped deliver a strong Christmas for Swindon-based retail giant WH Smith.
While sales in its traditional high street stores continued to fall, as expected, its shops at airports and major railway stations again proved the bright spot in the 21 weeks to 21 January – a period that includes the all-important run-up to Christmas. 
As a result group chief executive Stephen Clarke said he expected profit growth for the entire year to be “slightly ahead of plan”.
Total sales for the 21-week period were up 2% – or 1% stripping out contributions from new stores. While revenues in Smith’s high street branches fell by 3%, its travel outlets chalked up a 5% increase.
This follows the pattern of recent years as its high street units have faced intense competition from rivals in high-margin areas such as stationery and cards.
However, investors warmed to the results and the group’s shares closed up nearly 6.9% on the day at £15.82, having at one time been 7.5% higher.
Mr Clarke said: “In Travel, we have delivered good sales growth across all our key channels in the period. This was driven by ongoing investment in the business and continued growth in passenger numbers – particularly in our airport stores over the Christmas holiday period.
In High Street, we saw another good performance with sales in line with expectations driven by our new seasonal stationery ranges and spoof humour books.
“As a result of the performance in Travel we expect group profit growth for the year to be slightly ahead of plan.”
The firm, which has its headquarters at Greenbridge, this year celebrates the 225th anniversary of our first store opening in 1792. It employs around 14,000 staff across the UK and operates more than 1,300 stores in 23 countries.
Mr Clarke said it was well positioned for the year ahead, adding: “While there is some uncertainty in the broader economic environment, we remain confident as we continue to focus on profitable growth, cash generation and investing in new opportunities,” he said.
Analysts were also upbeat about Smith’s performance.
George Salmon of Hargreaves Lansdown said: “Growth in passenger numbers, together with the results of its ongoing investment programme, have fuelled a solid performance from WH Smith’s stores in transport hubs. This has helped group profit expectations for the full year rise.
“High street sales have had a tough time in recent years, so a decline here was always to be expected, especially so given the boost from adult colouring books has now largely faded away.
“The strategy continues to be broadening the stationery offering and adding Post Office concessions. While these concessions should help group margin, it is the Travel division that is likely to drive growth in the future.”
