• Swindon & Wiltshire Retail
• Friday December 19 2025

WH Smith posts financial results after profit warning that led to CEO’s departure

Swindon-headquartered retail giant WH Smith has posted its first financial results since its CEO quit last month.

After a review of its accounts, CEO Carl Cowling offered his resignation in November.

Today (Friday, December 19) – a month to the day since that resignation was announced – the retailer said it was still on the hunt for a new CEO and confirmed that the Financial Conduct Authority has commenced an investigation into the company.

The company admitted it had been “a difficult year.” Andrew Harrison, interim group CEO said: “The board and I are acutely aware that we have much to do to rebuild confidence in WHSmith and deliver stronger returns as we move forward.

“We are acting at pace progressing our remediation plan and are committed to ensuring that we strengthen our financial controls and governance as we move forward.”

He said the following the departure of the brand from British high streets in March, and the sale of FunkyPigeon.com in August, the company was now “a pure-play global travel retailer.”

“Travel retail is a high growth market, and we have attractive market positions in the UK, North America and our international markets from which we are well-positioned to grow,” he said.

For the year to 31 August 2025, it reported a five per cent rise in group revenue to £1.55 billion, with revenue growing five per cent in the UK, seven per cent in North America, and 12 per cent in the the Rest of the World.

Headline profit before tax fell from £114 million last year to £108 million. Headline trading profit fell from £170 million to £159 million over the same period.

Following the profit warning, the group said headline trading profit was expected to be between £100 million and £110 million.