Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

[C J Snarzell]

WH Smith is selling it's high street business and the shops will be rebranded as 'TG Jones' .The buyer is Mondella Capital, which owns Hobbycraft.

Sale of UK High Street business

I think the new brand is made up and not in memory of the footballer who played for Everton in the 1940s and 50s!

WHSmiths have been a high street casualty for a while now, so this news isn’t a great surprise. I’m wondering how far the WHS streamlining will go? Manchester Piccadilly has two WHS outlets - a small stall like shop near the undercroft on the landing between the escalators & a larger store next to the main entrance to Picc. Given this news are we likely to see one of them disappear soon? The WHS at Wolverhampton closed last year, so it seems even their railway stores are at risk too.

CJ

 

[gswindale]

I think a different set of initials would have been good.

As based on that, we'll have the following 3 brands on the High St:
TKM(axx)
TJH(ughes)
TGJ(ones)

 

[Towers]

Presumably the envisioned opportunity here may be to stock a degree of Hobbycraft stock in former Smiths stores and thus bring HC’s reach into the high street. I’m not entirely convinced there’ll be long term success in that, but I suppose it’s worth a try! It’s noteworthy - although not necessarily entirely relevant - that HC already stock a small selection of relevant magazines, so no doubt some level of synergy will occur there. Hopefully the former WH Smiths will continue to sell magazines, although of course the railway side of things will no doubt still be available at the remaining railway station branches.

 

[GatwickDepress]

I wonder how much investment will be given to refurbishing the stores themselves.

Popped into the Leeds city centre branch yesterday to grab a copy of Continental Modeller (forgot to renew my subscription, d'oh) and it wasn't a very inviting experience. One set of doors out of order, lights dimmed to the point of uselessness with some bulbs constantly flashing bright to give you a headache, shelves half-empty and numerous products without price tags...

They keep a clean store though. No errant piles of crates to block your path or patches of carpet hastily stuck down with hazard tape.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Probably why the staff in my local store were more miserable than usual recently. I assume they will transfer to the new company?

 

[Dai Corner]

Probably why the staff in my local store were more miserable than usual recently. I assume they will transfer to the new company?

From the WHS statement

All stores, colleagues, assets and liabilities of the High Street business will move under Modella Capital's ownership as part of the Transaction.

 

[Ashley Hill]

From the WHS statement

Thanks,I should really have read that.

 

[Bald Rick]

I think a different set of initials would have been good.

As based on that, we'll have the following 3 brands on the High St:
TKM(axx)
TJH(ughes)
TGJ(ones)

and

TAC(O’Bell)

 

[sprunt]

Manchester Piccadilly has two WHS outlets - a small stall like shop near the undercroft on the landing between the escalators & a larger store next to the main entrance to Picc. Given this news are we likely to see one of them disappear soon?

The shops in stations aren't part of this deal - they come under WH Smith Travel I believe, not the High Street retail part.

 

[Henffordd]

I think a different set of initials would have been good.

As based on that, we'll have the following 3 brands on the High St:
TKM(axx)
TJH(ughes)
TGJ(ones)

Someone in Modella Capital is a fan of 2001: a Space Odyssey. HAL, the computer was named by shifting the letters IBM forward by one.

 

[Ediswan]

Someone in Modella Capital is a fan of 2001: a Space Odyssey. HAL, the computer was named by shifting the letters IBM forward by one.

A claim denied by Arthur C Clarke.

 

[dangie]

WH Smith is selling it's high street business and the shops will be rebranded as 'TG Jones' .The buyer is Mondella Capital, which owns Hobbycraft.

I wonder if Stafford’s ‘Big Issue’ seller will now have to stand somewhere else, or will she retire…? She’s plied her trade outside WH Smith for many years.

 

[Thirteen]

I discovered that the WH Smith shops in hospitals are part of the Travel business, I guess it's because it's a concession rather than high street.

 

[Backroom_boy]

More about charging higher prices than the high street

I discovered that the WH Smith shops in hospital are part of the Travel business, I guess it's because it's a concession rather than high street.

 

[lookapigeon]

More about charging higher prices than the high street

I lost my USB phone charging cable and wanted to try and get a replacement, they wanted north of £20 for a very short cable. Completely get the captive market aspect but I just winced at the excessive profiteering and made do without, phone was completely dead. Although being purchased by private equity, I can't see things getting better given that WHS has been run into the ground for years. The high-street section anyway.

 

[Egg Centric]

I lost my USB phone charging cable and wanted to try and get a replacement, they wanted north of £20 for a very short cable. Completely get the captive market aspect but I just winced at the excessive profiteering and made do without, phone was completely dead. Although being purchased by private equity, I can't see things getting better given that WHS has been run into the ground for years. The high-street section anyway.

What really confuses me is how they can be loss making with it. They totally take the wee wee. Although then again I've not been in a "high street" one for years so maybe they've been screwed over by the focus on the captive market ones

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Mar 2025 ==

(My fav trick with the airport ones was the "you must scan boarding pass so VAT isn't payable. No, we're not passing any of that saving on to you")

 

[jon0844]

What really confuses me is how they can be loss making with it. They totally take the wee wee. Although then again I've not been in a "high street" one for years so maybe they've been screwed over by the focus on the captive market ones

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Mar 2025 ==

(My fav trick with the airport ones was the "you must scan boarding pass so VAT isn't payable. No, we're not passing any of that saving on to you")

They almost certainly make a loss because they have ridiculous profit margins, and have pushed away almost all their customers (I'd imagine they have some people buying newspapers and distress purchases, like the need for stationery items (e.g. printer paper)).

Now, perhaps most customers don't exist even if they cut the margins and lower prices, but I guess we'll have to see under new ownership.

I saw staff from our local WH Smith post on Facebook last week about being told they weren't closing after all (after having reduced everything by 30% and STILL having nobody in the shops) so I do wonder how we'll see things change.

More hobbyist stuff is fine, but there's a Works just around the corner that covers a lot of that - and they're not exactly swamped with customers either. Their prices are likely a lot more competitive though.

 

[styles]

I discovered that the WH Smith shops in hospitals are part of the Travel business, I guess it's because it's a concession rather than high street.

This sort of makes sense.

The purchasing patterns at a hospital site are going to be more akin to a railway station site than a high street shop.

A travel site you'd expect to sell more on-the-go food, phone chargers, travel pillows for relatives sleeping at the bedside, etc. Ultimately they're often the only choice for these 'essentials', and price according to the perceived urgency.

A high street shop you'd expect to be more of a destination - doing the kids' stationery shop for the year, a much broader selection of books, parcel materials, etc. This is where WH Smith don't work so well, because for each of their main product categories there tends to be somewhere else on the high street which is either more pleasant (Waterstones for books), cheaper (pound shops/B&M/Home Bargains for stationery) or both (Rymans for stationery and packing materials).

 

[jon0844]

WH Smith is indeed as much of a rip off in hospitals as at an airport or motorway service station. They can charge what they like because many customers can't shop elsewhere. You can't easily leave an airport, motorway services or hospital.

This means they can charge way more and remain profitable, whereas I think that on the high street they're pretty much screwed. I have noticed that Tesco appears to have reduced its own range of stationery to boost Paperchase stuff (as a result, many items are now far more expensive) but there are still many ways to get cheap pens, pencils and pencil cases etc (e.g. for school/college) - especially if you're not in a major rush to get them.

 

[Tracked]

Had an issue with WH Smiths' meal deal years ago, haven't shopped there since. Two separate stations, Picadilly and Carlisle, on the same day; one section of the food shelves marked up with the meal deal promotion, but not everything on that shelf was part of it. Can't remember it being indicated on the price labels, but after having an issue the first time I thought I was being more careful in my choices, so I think maybe not (first time it was quiet, so I went and got something else, second time I left it on the counter and went out to Greggs as I had the time).

 

[simonw]

What really confuses me is how they can be loss making with it. They totally take the wee wee. Although then again I've not been in a "high street" one for years so maybe they've been screwed over by the focus on the captive market ones

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Mar 2025 ==

(My fav trick with the airport ones was the "you must scan boarding pass so VAT isn't payable. No, we're not passing any of that saving on to you")

They aren't loss making.

 

[SuspectUsual]

They keep a clean store though. No errant piles of crates to block your path

One of the upsides of massively declining sales is less restocking of the shelves

TAC(O’Bell)

The Irish / Mexican fast food place?

 

[317 forever]

WH Smith is selling it's high street business and the shops will be rebranded as 'TG Jones' .The buyer is Mondella Capital, which owns Hobbycraft.

Sale of UK High Street business

I think the new brand is made up and not in memory of the footballer who played for Everton in the 1940s and 50s!

With the surname Jones used, people could imagine the head office is in Wales

 

[Mcr Warrior]

(My fav trick with the airport ones was the "you must scan boarding pass so VAT isn't payable. No, we're not passing any of that saving on to you")

How does that work, exactly, if it's not an airport duty-free outlet?

 

[The Ham]

I think a different set of initials would have been good.

As based on that, we'll have the following 3 brands on the High St:
TKM(axx)
TJH(ughes)
TGJ(ones)

If they wanted to go with "heritage" (and I'm going upset a few by using that word in this context, they could have used the save surname but gone with CJ Jones (J Jones being the name of Corporal Jones' butchers shop).

 

[Harpo]

although of course the railway side of things will no doubt still be available at the remaining railway station branches.

I’d make no assumption about the range of publications either side of the split. I’d expect some publishers to be a touch nervous for a while.

 

[Towers]

I’d make no assumption about the range of publications either side of the split. I’d expect some publishers to be a touch nervous for a while.

For many of the magazines currently available in Smiths I’d imagine they must be about the only high street stockist? I can’t really think of anywhere else which sells that sort of range?

 

[BingMan]

WHSmiths have been a high street casualty for a while now, so this news isn’t a great surprise. I’m wondering how far the WHS streamlining will go? Manchester Piccadilly has two WHS outlets - a small stall like shop near the undercroft on the landing between the escalators & a larger store next to the main entrance to Picc. Given this news are we likely to see one of them disappear soon? The WHS at Wolverhampton closed last year, so it seems even their railway stores are at risk too.

CJ

I am surprised that the WHS at Man Pic survives as it is next to a Sainsburys Local where prices are much lower.
WHS were asking £3.99 for a bag of Jelly Babies on Wednesday which were only £1.35 in the Sainsburys

 

[styles]

I am surprised that the WHS at Man Pic survives as it is next to a Sainsburys Local where prices are much lower.
WHS were asking £3.99 for a bag of Jelly Babies on Wednesday which were only £1.35 in the Sainsburys

Presumably a sufficient supply of foreign tourists who don't know better, and being able to legally 'reduce' them by 75% to 99p at the tills for a few weeks.

 

[wilbers]

You can't easily leave an airport, motorway services or hospital.

While we know what you meant to say, a motorway services is one of the easiest places to leave (barring a vehicle breakdown!). Similarly almost everyone is leaving an airport at a predetermined time, its just the intervening time they are literally a captive consumer.