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WH Smith is planning to open a further ten stores in hospitals over the next year, and its three workplace stores could expand to more than 100 eventually. 19-Oct-2009 WH Smith is to set up a 212,000 sq ft warehouse at Witton in Birmingham. 31-Aug-2009 WH Smith is planning to expand its chain of 807 stationery stores with ten high street outlets and 32 travel shops by August. 02-Feb-2009 WH Smith is considering plans to expand its chain of 80 hospital-based stationery outlets to a further 50 sites over the next five years. 13-Oct-2008 WH Smith has acquired the United News chain of 80 hospital newsagents and coffee shops for £19m, and has also announced plans to open 29 stores at RoadChef motorway service areas. 20-Mar-2008 Welcome Break is planning to open WH Smith stores at all 33 of its motorway service station sites. 03-May-2007 WH Smith has agreed a franchise deal to take over the running of about 75 Crown post offices by the end of next year, which will affect up to 1,000 staff. 19-Apr-2007 WH Smith is planning to open 50 stores in motorway service stations, in partnership with Moto Hospitality and Swayfield Group. 27-Nov-2006 WH Smith has announced plans to demerge its news distribution business from its retail division over the next 12 months. 13-Apr-2006 WH Smith is to trial mobile phone kiosks in eight of its high street stores, in a joint venture with Virgin Mobile. 01-Sep-2004 WH Smith is to sell its Hodder Headline publishing business to Hachette Livre of France for £210m, in order to focus on retail and news distribution. 03-Aug-2004 WH Smith has sold its ASPAC Retail operations in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong to Pacific Equity Partners. 26-Apr-2004 WH Smith has received a £937m takeover approach from private equity group Permira, while plans have been announced to shed 300 jobs at offices in Swindon and London. 19-Apr-2004 WH Smith is looking to sell its Asia-Pacific operations, which include two book retailing chains in Australia and New Zealand. 13-Apr-2004 WH Smith is to sell its chain of 180 airport stores in the US to Hudson Group for £41m, while its 280 US hotel stores are being sold to management for £8m. 19-Sep-2003 WH Smith is planning to revamp its entire chain of 550 high street shops and 220 travel stores. 01-Sep-2003 WH Smith is considering plans to set up workplace stores selling newspapers, books and snacks in corporate head offices, having opened a trial outlet at the Axa office in Bristol. 23-Sep-2002 WH Smith has sold its Helicon online reference publishing business to RM for £0.7m. 14-Feb-2002 WH Smith has announced plans to open 120 new stores across the country over the next three years, with the creation of 3,000 jobs, including its first move into Northern Ireland. 06-Dec-2001 WH Smith is planning to open an unspecified number of temporary stores this Christmas, and is seeking suitable locations. 10-Sep-2001 WH Smith is to sell its distribution business to former managers backed by ABN Amro Private Equity for £215m. 06-Jul-2001 WH Smith has acquired Blue Star Consumer Retailing, the operator of 184 book shops in Australia and New Zealand, for £38m. 18-Jun-2001 WH Smith is planning to open 100 new shops over the next three years, to add to the existing 770. 11-Jun-2001 WH Smith is planning to open a chain of up to 30 stores in continental Europe over the next three years, depending on the success of a trial outlet in Barcelona. 09-Apr-2001 WH Smith is planning to open its first factory outlet store at Cheshire Oaks later this year, and is also looking to open 100 high street and 50 edge-of-town stores. 12-Mar-2001 WH Smith has put its magazine and newspaper distribution business up for sale, which could raise up to £300m. 05-Mar-2001 WH Smith is considering plans to sell off its news distribution business, having been approached by a number of interested parties. 01-Feb-2001 WH Smith is acquiring The Benjamin Company, the seller of books and gifts at nine US airports, for £12m. 18-Apr-2000 WH Smith Online is setting up a new distribution centre in Cowley, Oxford, to deliver goods ordered through the internet, with the creation of up to 180 jobs. 17-Apr-2000 WH Smith is to introduce online shopping kiosks in its high street and travel outlets, enabling customers to purchase music, videos, games and stationery for home delivery. 27-Mar-2000 WH Smith and Carlton Communications are to link their e-commerce operations, with visitors to Carlton's web sites being directed to WH Smith's site and any resulting revenue shared between the two companies. 22-Mar-2000 WH Smith is forming a joint venture with Axon, the e-business consultancy, that will enable shops to order newspapers and magazines over the internet. 02-Mar-2000 WH Smith has acquired Hazelwood Enterprises, the US company that operates stores in 70 hotels, for about £12m. 01-Feb-2000 WH Smith is forming an internet alliance with British Telecom in order to gain access to new customers through BT internet portals, as part of a strategy to gain 30% of the UK online book market within three years. 27-Jan-2000 Telewest has added WH Smith to the list of 15 retailers for its Active Digital interactive TV service. 22-Dec-1999 WH Smith is planning to make efficiency improvements at its Swindon-based logistical operation, which will lead to the loss of up to 40 jobs. 14-Dec-1999 WH Smith is to trial a new bookshop format at a store in Leeds railway station in December, enabling customers to order books online and have them delivered to their homes or to other WH Smith shops. 29-Oct-1999 WH Smith is to acquire Wayland, the publisher of books for school libraries, through its Hodder Headline subsidiary. 01-Sep-1999 WH Smith is to acquire Hodder Headline, the book publisher, for £185m, as part of a strategy to sell more books through own-label and proprietary brands. 25-May-1999 WH Smith has announced a deal to sell books to passengers on Britannia Airways flights. 20-May-1999 WH Smith is to spend £15m rebranding its 90 John Menzies stores in Scotland as WHS outlets, and they will focus on books, stationery and newspapers. 17-May-1999 WH Smith has announced plans to sell books on-line in an alliance with Open, the British Telecom and BSkyB interactive TV joint venture. 30-Apr-1999 WH Smith has launched a free internet access service called WHSmith Online, which will focus on educational content. 27-Apr-1999 WH Smith is linking up with Microsoft and British Telecom to develop an internet gateway to sell books, videos, music, and other services. 25-Mar-1999 WH Smith has acquired Helicon, the educational publisher, for £5.6m, which could lead to Smith offering free access to an encyclopaedia on the internet. 16-Jan-1999 Virgin Group is acquiring WH Smith's 75% stake in the Our Price music retailing business for £145m, and intends to manage the smaller outlets separately from the megastores. 08-Jul-1998 WH Smith is acquiring the Internet Bookshop, which claims to be Europe's largest internet bookshop, for £8.8m. 09-Jun-1998 WH Smith is in negotiations to sell its 75% stake in the Our Price music chain to Virgin for over £135m, and a deal could be agreed next month. 26-May-1998 WH Smith is to return £250m to shareholders following the sale of its Waterstone's bookshop chain to a consortium backed by EMI and Advent of the US. 31-Mar-1998 WH Smith has confirmed that it is planning to buy the John Menzies retail chain for £68m, which will result in some job losses and the rebranding of the Menzies stores in England and Wales. 10-Mar-1998 WH Smith is in negotiations to acquire the John Menzies newsagents chain as a way to use up the proceeds from the sale of the Waterstone's book chain. 06-Mar-1998 EMI and Advent International of the US are to buy the Waterstone's chain of book stores from WH Smith for £300m, through a joint venture called HMV Media that will also acquire the 271 HMV music stores and the Dillons chain of book stores from EMI for £500m. 26-Feb-1998 WH Smith is to refocus its stores on books, stationery, and newspapers, in response to a period of falling sales. 30-Jan-1998 WH Smith is said to have finalised a deal to sell the Waterstone's chain of bookshops to a joint venture between the chain's founder and EMI Group, and an announcement is expected soon. 09-Jan-1998 Virgin Megastores has delayed plans to launch an internet record store until the new year, due to higher-than-expected set-up costs and the uncertainty over WH Smith's controlling stake in the company. 04-Nov-1997 WH Smith is planning to sell The Wall, its US music retailing business, to Camelot Music which is currently in Chapter 11 insolvency protection, for £28m. 03-Nov-1997 WH Smith has announced restructuring plans, which will involve the demerger of the Waterstone's book chain, the sale of its 75% stake in the Our Price music chain, and the sale of its US music chain The Wall, in order to focus on its WH Smith chain, its wholesaling business and its travel business. 17-Oct-1997 WH Smith has rejected a surprise takeover bid by Tim Waterstone, the bookseller who sold the Waterstone's chain to WH Smith eight years ago. 02-Oct-1997 Virgin Group has had a £135m offer to take control of the Our Price record chain rejected by WH Smith. 22-Aug-1997 WH Smith has denied reports that it may be broken up, with the core high street chain being separated from the Waterstone's book shops and the Our Price record chain. 18-Aug-1997 HMV and Virgin Megastores, part of the WH Smith group, are planning to sell albums and videos on new internet sites, putting them in competition with some of their retail customers. 06-Aug-1997 WH Smith has won a concession to operate five news, book and gift shops at the new Hong Kong airport. 16-Jul-1997 WH Smith is launching a loyalty card nationwide following extensive trials, which will offer a 2% discount. 14-Jul-1997 Waterstone's is planning to open English language book stores in four European cities and at large European airports, while it also wants to build a superstore in London. 12-Jul-1997 Waterstone's, the WH Smith subsidiary, is to open bookshops in up to 50 small towns, each carrying about 25,000 titles, creating 400 jobs. 08-Jul-1997 WH Smith is looking to spin off The Wall, its US music business, due to the effects of a price war in the industry. 13-Jun-1997 WH Smith has arranged the sale and leaseback of 14 of its high street properties, raising £55m for debt repayment and investment. 06-Jun-1997 WH Smith is to split its retail business into two divisions which will separate its high street stores from those that operate at stations and airports, and will also transfer its distribution activities over to WH Smith News. 12-Apr-1997 WH Smith is to close its chain of 29 Playhouse video shops. 18-Jan-1997 WH Smith is planning to sell up to 25% of its high street shops in order to fund a reduction in borrowings. 13-Jan-1997 WH Smith has sold Paperchase, the chain of 12 stationery stores, to management for £1m. 14-Jun-1996 Boots is to acquire WH Smith's share in their joint Do It All chain of DIY stores. 10-Jun-1996 WH Smith is said to be planning an overhaul of its 550 stores in order to improve profitability, a move which could result in 1,000 job losses. 03-Jun-1996 WH Smith has sold its Niceday stationery supply business to Guilbert of France for £142m. 19-Apr-1996 WH Smith has ordered its shops to increase the discount received from local publishers from 35% to 48%, a move which is likely to anger publishers. 26-Feb-1996 WH Smith is looking to cut labour costs with possible redundancies and closures, following a fall in interim profits. 25-Jan-1996
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