High street WHSmith sold to owner of Hobbycraft

By John Freeman on March 28, 2025 • ( 2 )

WHSmith has agreed to sell its high street business to Modella Capital, the owner of Hobbycraft, which it bought last year.

Modella’s other recent acquisitions include the Lakeland retail brand.

WHSmith High Street | Image: WHSmith — *Image: WHSmith*

WHS Retail currently employs 5,000 staff members in around 480 stores and its Swindon support centre.

All stores, colleagues, assets and liabilities of the business will move under Modella Capital’s ownership and will be led by Sean Toal, the current chief executive of the high street business.

It will continue to operate for a short transitional period under the WHSmith brand while it rebrands as TG Jones.

WHSmith has been steadily increasing its focus on travel, with 75% of the group’s revenue and 85% of its trading profit coming from its business in the last financial year.

As previously reported, the WHSmith brand is not included in the sale as the retailer’s travel divisions will continue to trade across 32 countries and including at major airport locations, hospitals and rail stations in the UK.

Carl Cowling, WHSmith group chief executive, said: “As we continue to deliver on our strategic ambition to become the leading global travel retailer, this is a pivotal moment for WH M Smith as we become a business exclusively focused on travel.

“We have a highly successful travel business, operating in fast growing markets in 32 countries and we are constantly innovating to deliver strong returns and meet our customers’ and partners’ needs.

“With the ongoing strength in our UK travel division, and the scale of the growth opportunities in both North America and the rest of the world, we are in our strongest ever position to deliver enhanced growth as we move forward as a pure play travel retailer”.

• Read the full press release here

• City News: WHSmith’s decline: A cautionary tale of bad branding by Will Bosanko

(Link added Monday 7th April 2025): As WHSmith disappears from the high street, Will Bosanko looks at why the brand failed, and asks whether there is a future for TG Jones

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.