WH Smith: who owns it, who runs it and what the accounts show
WH Smith PLC is owned by its shareholders: as a listed company it has no single person with significant control on the register. In the year to August 2024 it reported turnover of £1,918m.
WH Smith has filed accounts for the year to 31 August 2025 at Companies House. Those figures are not yet in Spark Intel's data, so this page shows the previous year, to 31 August 2024. It will update when they are.
- Registered name
- WH SMITH PLC
- Company number
- 05202036
- Status
- Active
- Incorporated
- 10 August 2004
- Registered office area
- Swindon
- Industry code on the register
- 70100: Activities of head offices; management consultancy activities
- Accounts
- Group accounts, covering the companies it owns
- Latest accounts
- Year to August 2024, filed 20 February 2025
What does WH Smith do?
WH Smith is a travel retailer, running shops in airports, railway stations and hospitals that sell newspapers, books, snacks, drinks, travel essentials and electronics. It makes money from sales to travellers, paying rent or concession fees to the airports and stations where it trades. The business started in London in 1792 as a news vendor and now focuses on travel locations in the UK and abroad. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
In brief: travel retail · airports, stations and hospitals · news, books and convenience · listed
Source: Spark Intel editorial, checked 24 September 2026. Official website: whsmithplc.co.uk.
Who owns WH Smith?
WH Smith PLC, company number 05202036, has no person with significant control on the register. That is normal for a company whose shares trade on a regulated market: ownership sits with the shareholders who hold the shares at any given time.
The full ownership record is on the Companies House register. Control is given in the bands the register uses, not as exact shareholdings.
Who runs WH Smith?
The Companies House register lists 6 current officers for WH Smith PLC.
All 6 current officers
| Officer | Appointed |
|---|---|
| Ian Houghton | 21 June 2006 |
| Simon Emeny | 26 February 2019 |
| Situl Suryakant Jobanputra | 1 March 2024 |
| Helen Claire Rose | 1 July 2024 |
| Maxwell Leslie James Izzard | 1 December 2024 |
| Leo Martin Quinn | 7 April 2026 |
Every current officer, with appointment dates, is on the Companies House register.
What did WH Smith file?
WH Smith PLC reported turnover of £1,918m in the year to August 2024. That was up 7.0% on £1,793m the year before.
It reported 13,921 employees. The year before it reported 14,177.
It filed a pre-tax profit of £106m for the year, against a pre-tax profit of £110m the year before.
Staff costs came to £386m. That is an average of £28,000 a head. It ended the year with £56m at the bank and net assets of £416m. It paid dividends of £41m.
| Measure | Aug 2024 | Aug 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | £1,918m | £1,793m |
| Pre-tax profit | £106m (filed) | £110m (filed) |
| Employees | 13,921 | 14,177 |
| Staff costs | £386m | £367m |
| Average staff cost per head | £28,000 | £26,000 |
| Bank and cash | £56m | £56m |
| Net assets | £416m | £317m |
| Dividends paid | £41m | £22m |
| Interest paid | £52m | |
| Directors' pay | £5m |
Read the accounts to August 2024 on Companies House, where every set of accounts the company has filed can be downloaded as a PDF.
WH Smith files as WH Smith PLC, with turnover of £1,918m in its latest filed year.
Questions about WH Smith
What does WH Smith do?
WH Smith is a travel retailer, running shops in airports, railway stations and hospitals that sell newspapers, books, snacks, drinks, travel essentials and electronics. It makes money from sales to travellers, paying rent or concession fees to the airports and stations where it trades. The business started in London in 1792 as a news vendor and now focuses on travel locations in the UK and abroad. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Who owns WH Smith?
WH Smith PLC is owned by its shareholders. As a listed company it is exempt from the register of people with significant control, so no single owner appears at Companies House.
How much does WH Smith make?
WH Smith PLC reported turnover of £1,918m in the year to August 2024. It filed a pre-tax profit of £106m.
How many people work at WH Smith?
WH Smith PLC reported 13,921 employees in the year to August 2024.
Who runs WH Smith?
The Companies House register lists 6 current officers for WH Smith PLC. The full list, with appointment dates, is on the Companies House register.
- Figures come from WH Smith PLC's filings at Companies House, company number 05202036, for the period shown at the top of the page.
- These are group accounts: they include the companies it owns.
- Pre-tax profit is the figure the company filed, for both years.
- A figure the filing does not disclose is shown as n/d. A zero in the filing is treated as not disclosed, never as nil.
- Rounding: below £0.1m in thousands, from £0.1m to £2m to one decimal place, from £2m to the nearest million.
- Ownership is shown in the control bands the register of people with significant control uses, not as exact shareholdings.
- Officers' names and appointment dates come from the Companies House register. Job titles come from the company's own website. The description of what the company does comes from its website, or is marked Spark Intel editorial where it is written from stable, checked facts, with the date either way.
Spark Intel, “WH Smith: who owns it, who runs it and what the accounts show”, updated 28 September 2026. https://www.spark-intel.co.uk/companies/wh-smith/. Figures from Companies House filings for WH SMITH PLC (05202036).
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