WHSmith has a store on 399 of the top 400 High Streets in the UK, as well as many smaller towns. We recognise that our business plays an important role in local communities up and down the country and we are committed to supporting those communities and helping to maintain a vibrant retail environment.
Our store teams are active members in their communities, with many store managers and staff giving their time to support local councils, town centre management and high street security groups to promote a positive business environment on their high streets.
Over the course of the year we opened 39 new High Street stores, many of them in small towns, such as Kingsbridge in Devon and Driffield in Yorkshire. This figure includes the stores which WHSmith acquired from British Bookshops and Stationers Limited, when that company went into administration. We opened 35 new stores in UK Travel locations, including nine new stores in hospitals. In total, these new High Street and Travel stores have created or sustained over 400 jobs in communities across the UK.
.