Back before the pandemic began I named WH Smith in my corporate dead
pool. At long last it has happened.
WH Smith has sold its high street shops to Modella Capital, the
same private equity fund that controls Hobbycraft. They will be
changed to the entirely synthetic name
"TGJones". Modella have said
they "plan to make few changes" to the shops; well, given that they
are a private equity fund and the shops haven't been noticeably
profitable for years, I expect (and predict) that they will indeed do
very little to change the shops; any separable assets will be sold,
and the remnant corporate entity will be loaded with debt, then cast
off to sink. (This is after all what private equity funds are for.)
No wonder they didn't put much effort into the name.
Meanwhile original WH Smith is keeping (under the original name) its
travel business, the shops that charge monopoly prices to captive
audiences for the crime of not bringing their own books, snacks and
greeting cards to the train, plane, hospital, etc.
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