British bookstore chain Smith All of its urban retail divisions have been sold to Modela Capital, a private equity firm. The store is the main newsstand for British comics.
For sale for £76 million (about $100 million), Modella Capital will set up 480 retail stores in the UK town centre, retail parks and shopping malls and rename them to TG Jones. WH Smith will retain its brand and refocus on its network of travel shops established in quality locations such as hospitals, railway stations and airports in 32 countries, which actually constitutes the majority of its annual turnover. Modella Capital has chosen the new TG Jones name, which will replace the street brand in June as it gives the same “family sense” as the beloved WH Smith name.
While WH Smith Store has hosted the post office in recent years and has sold technology gadgets along with stationary, gift cards, etc., it is primarily known as bookstores and newsstand suppliers. It thus becomes the only guaranteed place to find most British newsstand comics, and it is a key portal to traditional media forms. Title of rebellion 2000 AD and sister title Judge Dred MegazineDC Thomson’s rest and CommandoDavid Fickling Phoenix – and Panini-Parmined Repints of Marvel and DC Comics (plus independent champions Transfer and quantum) – All stores can be found from London to Leicester, as well as Kendall to Kilmarnock. It is unclear that the store (and its 5,000 employees) will change due to the reorganization, nor will it change in future magazines and comics.
British comic blogger John Freeman expressed concern about this, saying:
“WHSMITH remains the main seller of newsstand comics, e.g. 2000AD,,,,, rest,,,,, quantum and TransferAlthough in recent years, despite changes in corporate layouts deprived them of their popularity, as well as newspapers and magazines in their high street shops. If they all close, this could have a negative impact on professional publishers”
British journal comics have attracted their sales from a mix of newsstand retail businesses and subscriptions, occasionally appearing in dedicated comic stores. Most, if not all, of their high streets are attributed to WH Smith, and the supermarket is far away (more inconsistent) second.
WH Smith explained the reasons for the sale, saying:
“In the past decade, WHSMITH has become the world’s leading travel retailer, with over 1,200 travel stores in 32 countries. While profitable and cash-generating, the UK high street business has become increasingly smaller for the WHSMITH Group.
Modella Capital is a private equity company established in 2022. It specializes in retail and consumer-centric businesses, including craft retailers Hobbycraft and Ted Baker Fashion Clashe No General Designer Tags.
WH Smith has been around since 1792 and was originally a London-based news provider. With the advent of the railway, it expanded its business during the Victorian era as a major source of novels, newspapers and traveler magazines. Later, it will expand travel hotspots outside its scope of operations to become a popular (and universal) public retail brand in downtown and high streets.
WH Smith announced it will sell its retail division in January to focus on travel stores. It announced that 15% of its total revenue comes from high street retail. The high street area of the economy has been struggling since before the beginning of the Kuved pandemic. As costs rise, smaller profit margins, online retail and town centres fall, there are many familiar UK stores closures.
It is unclear how big the sudden impact of British comic publishers will occur, but some may be somewhat buffered as their full stops go beyond journals and embrace of graphic novels and collection formats. In recent years, the biggest success in China is Jamie Smart WorryX, close competition in sales royal family Dog man In British book pictures. Meanwhile, the rebellion made great progress in establishing the back catalog of the 2000 AD and British comic treasury, and did everything possible to improve its presence in the United States.
DC Thomson is likely to be affected by the biggest changes. This is a newspaper and magazine publisher based in Scotland and was formerly the largest name in traditional British comics. Long reluctant to transfer collections of booked archive materials, limiting reprints in Beano, Dandy and beloved Scottish newspapers to Broos and Oor Wullie, to hardcover this year. In recent years, it has occasionally tried the War Comics series of commandos and warlords, as well as the disappearing Scifi Series Starblazer. What could change – it recently collaborated with Harper Collins’ Farshore books to collect the popular Beano series Beano series Beano and Yeti’s YETI’s booming market for children’s graphic novels (seriously released this week).
